Will More Storms have Names?

Homeowners’ insurance used to cover houses damaged by hurricanes or storms in hurricane country, specifically in Louisiana where I lived for 40 some years.  Because hurricanes caused too much damage for the insurance companies to continue their obscene profits, they changed the coverage we could obtain. 

In 1992 after Hurricane Andrew leveled Homestead FL, the insurance companies started changing the deductible the homeowner had to pay, raising it to unaffordable limits if the hurricane was ‘named.’  

So with the insane amount insurance companies can afford to pay lobbyists, even tropical storms started getting names, long before they became hurricanes. You may not think that politicians have any say over weather forecasting, think again. They can’t control it, as much as they would love that, they sure can influence how insurance companies deal with paying for damages. And those lobbyists’ donation funds were limitless.

As years passed and insurance companies continued to limit coverage and after Hurricane Katrina occurred, insurance changed drastically.  In Louisiana any insurance company you have ever heard of, stopped writing any policies at all in hurricane areas. 

We were assigned risk homeowners and had to take either a company owned by the state of Louisiana or some company with a B rating and based on some island you have never heard of. And to top it off, the cheapest that could be had, with minimal coverage cost us some $6,000 a year.  That will dampen house sales in a hurry.  And destroy  your budget. Often insurance premiums were more than mortgage payments.

I say all of this because I have noticed that winter storms are staring to be named. Remember Hurricane Sandy, that became Superstorm Sandy.

Watch out northerners, south westerners and north westerners. The insurance companies are not satisfied again and will demand that more storms be named so your premiums will rise higher than you can even imagine and your coverage will drop. 

And while we are talking about insurance, flood insurance is entirely different and must be bought separately. It’s underwritten by the Federal Government and not all that expensive.  Be sure you are covered. Water damage is not covered by your homeowners insurance.

Be prepared. I can see rain storms, snow storms and high wind storms being named. Can fires or sand storms be far behind?