The Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, a state program that provides critical backup coverage to property insurers, is estimated to have $10 billion in losses from Hurricane Ian, officials said Wednesday.

The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) has issued an advisory that policyholders should be on the lookout for scammers, as the number of insurance claims filed related to Hurricane Ian hits nearly half a million.

Final numbers won’t be available for months, but one thing is certain: An overwhelming number of drivers in Hurricane Ian’s path will be replacing a vehicle at a time when inventories are already tight.

Heather O’Brien’s phone hasn’t stopped ringing in the two weeks since Hurricane Ian hit. O’Brien, who along husband Capt. Pat O’Brien has owned the Fort Myers Sea Tow franchise since 1996, already has responded to ‘hundreds’ of situations where boats were sunk or displaced or need to be recovered because of the storm.

Hurricane Ian was a devastating storm for southwest Florida. While out in the Gulf of Mexico, it became a high-end category 4 hurricane early on September 28, 2022 and made landfall later that afternoon. The areas where Ian made landfall will likely have little potential for subrogation. There will, however, be opportunities for subrogation along the storm’s path across the state of Florida.

Preliminary analysis of Hurricane Ian’s deadly storm surge suggests the Gulf of Mexico pushed as high as 15 feet above normally dry ground on Fort Myers Beach as it made landfall, the National Hurricane Center said Thursday.

The last week of September, 2022, the State of Florida braced for what was categorized to be one of the worst storms to make landfall in U.S. history. Initially, all weather channels displayed the storm’s trajectory heading towards Tampa Bay.

Nearly three dozen contractors with a criminal past have started a door-to-door campaign to Florida homes damaged by Hurricane Ian, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB).

Many feared that one big storm could cost every homeowner in Florida if the state-backed insurer of last resort, Citizens Property Insurance Corp., couldn’t afford to pay out claims from its more than a million policies.

By all accounts, we were extremely lucky. Just 24 hours before landfall, Hurricane Ian was expected to come ashore just south of Tampa Bay, putting my home in Bradenton in the projected direct path of a very significant storm.

Litigation costs could add between $10 billion and $20 billion to insured losses from Hurricane Ian, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

The terrible devastation wrought by Hurricane Ian on Florida’s southwest coast -- among the most powerful hurricanes to hit Florida in a century -- has been wrenching to watch even from afar: so many lives lost, homes shattered and livelihoods swept away by the storm surge, winds of up to 150 miles per hour and flooding rains.

Initial data from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (FLOIR) reveals that more than 375,000 claims have been filed after hurricane Ian, mostly related to residential property, as the entity reports total estimated insured losses of close to $3.28 billion.

The North Collier Fire Rescue District along with Florida’s Chief Financial Officer & State Fire Marshal Jimmy Patronis stated that electric vehicles are spontaneously catching fire in Florida because their batteries suffered water damage after the floods caused by Hurricane Ian.

The US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has reported that its National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) has already received more than 25,000 claims from hurricane Ian.