Hurricanes Hit Insurance Rates Hard
Monday, June 7th, 2004 Catastrophe Property Risk ManagementRetired police officers Ed and Nancy McCue are thinking about leaving their dream home near the shores of Biscayne Bay because it’s in a prime target area for hurricanes. It’s not the storm threat itself that’s pushing them out, but soaring insurance costs – $1,000 a year for a homeowner’s policy and an additional $2,100 for windstorm coverage, a bill that has tripled in the past five years. “I’ve worked really hard to rebuild this community,” Nancy McCue said from the $150,000 home she and her husband rebuilt after the devastation of Hurricane Andrew in 1992. “But this is one of the factors that is driving people out.” Homeowners are paying increasingly higher insurance rates as more people flock to the coasts and insurers try to cut back on the billions of dollars of losses they’ve absorbed from previous storms.
