When storms hit, everyone pays more for insurance

A major hurricane in the southern U.S. could carry a financial punch that reaches far beyond coastal communities by forcing hefty insurance surcharges on millions of unaffected people to help pay claims on damaged homes, a USA TODAY analysis shows. The surcharges are a direct result of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which caused hundreds of thousands of homeowners in the Southeast and on the Gulf Coast to lose their private insurance and join poorly financed state plans.