We are continuing to cover the price of paradise and the state of insurance with the top insurance headlines for the week.
1. Florida hurricane deductibles leave customers with sticker shock
This week includes more lessons learned for Tampa Bay area homeowners filing claims after Debby. Specifically when one homeowner emailed us shocked about his hurricane deductible.
Juan Mercado woke up to flooding inside his home on August 4th— evidence that Tropical Storm Debby had dumped water into his home overnight.
So, he filed an insurance claim with State Farm and was shocked to see a hurricane deductible even though Debby was still a tropical storm when it hit.
Winds were in North Florida, not here in Tampa Bay. "I try to recreate the path, and I try to with times and dates of when it became a hurricane and when it did that. And apparently that doesn't, that's irrelevant," he said.
The insurance information institute says that's because if a hurricane watch is issued for any part of the state, the hurricane deductible provision lasts until 72 hours after that watch or warning is issued.
2. 'Don't just rely on the flood maps': Nowhere in Florida is safe from floods
This week, In-depth reporter Michael Paluska spoke with experts who say that not being in a listed flood zone creates a false sense of security.
20% of flood insurance claims come from homeowners who don't live in a flood zone and only one in five Floridians have flood insurance.
But Sarasota County, leaders advise everyone to weigh their risk, saying that if you live in Florida, you live in a flood zone. That makes the message simple: get flood insurance.
3. American Integrity CEO talks rate decreases
This week I also sat down with American Integrity's CEO Bob Ritchie.
The company has filed a 6.9% decrease in premiums— the largest rate decrease filed by an insurance company this year. It will impact about 55,000 customers with the company's other 250,000 policyholders seeing no increases at all.
After the interview aired I did get an email from an American Integrity customer who said they've seen high increases in years past.
Ritchie tells homeowners to be patient and that more decreases are on the way.
"12 months from now, I see where it's the exception, not the rule, of carriers taking rate decreases," Ritchie said.
A state report says hundreds of frail elderly nursing home residents were stacked side by side, head to toe in a small church with no working air conditioning or refrigerator during Hurricane Helene.
