bajaman

You know, at what point DO you just say F it and quit trying to fight Mother Nature? I have nothing but admiration for those who endure this madness year after year after year, or at least storm after storm after storm, you know? To have to completely rebuild/replace/start over...man, that is just not in me to do so.

Markus

Got it. Thanks.

Hoodoo 2.0

That might apply to the panhandle but not the entire state.The big bend area and points west are in “hurricane alley” and get the lions share. I’ve been here all my life and have never had any real damage to the house. We had to clean out the garage yesterday and rinse it out, but back to normal today. I’ve had a place out west for 20+ yrs and have been through three severe windstorms out there just from thunderstorms.

Helmwurst

It's a money game now. Insurance deductible is so high that you basically fix it out of pocket until the next blow. Very good friend spent $200K fixing his place last time for Ian and it is damaged again. He can afford it, I go to the place every Winter for a few days, but at what point do you say enough.

tommymonza

No names storms were actually spring cold fronts that were stronger than forecasted. Weather predictions have become much better than 30 years ago.

F-2 Speedy

Ive lived in tornado alley my whole life and they are usually small in comparison to a hurricane, the destruction and loss of life is way less so Id rather deal with the twisters.

Jupiter Sunsation

This is a real issue^^^^^^

The deductible can be 5%, so if you have a 3mm waterfront home then the first 150K is on you! If you switch to a 10% deductible (to save premiums) then its $300,000 before they will even send anyone out to "look" at the damage. So imagine paying 40K a year for insurance BUT if something happens you are on the hook for the first 150-300K and they don't have to do anything. 150K can fix a lot of damage! The other thing in the valuation is the lot. If the house is older (3mm value) then the lot is likely 2/3 of that value. So you are really just insuring the 1mm older home, NOT the 2mm lot since that likely isn't going anywhere unless it washes into the ocean.

We had a tornado touch down recently, it was literally a 3 min blast. My buddy is 250K deep in his claim (roof, impact glass, center console flipped off the lift upside down into the water). The glitch then comes, if the impact windows are 20+ years old and insurance will pay for 20 broken windows do you just replace the rest so they all match/ all the same age (new). A quick tornado basically turned into a home remodeling project.

I'd love to live in a paid off older home and carry ZERO insurance except liability. If the house gets wrecked, oh well scrape the lot and build a new one. Every year I get to live there without paying thousands in insurance is a "WIN"

Jupiter Sunsation

I've lived within 5 miles of the coastline for over 40 years in SE Florida. ZERO claims for hurricanes/floods/car damage. I've seen plenty of damage but east coast hasn't really gotten the storm surge that puts 10ft of water through the town like the recent west coast storms have done. In most cases you have plenty of time to plan/prepare unlike a tornado. Flash flooding can happen even when there is no hurricane, Fort Lauderdale got it really bad last year after a blast of day long rain. People came out of work to find flooded parking lots and roads.

So while the TV clips are heartbreaking keep in mind the media zeros in on those places to make it seem like the whole state is knee deep in muddy water.

My neighbor is a investigator for the state, insurance fraud division. He has been re-assigned to go after the "storm roofers" that show up and try to do work in Florida after a storm for cash (no licenses, permits, etc). His whole division convoyed up to northern Florida today, these guys are cops/ unmarked cars and have statewide jurisdiction. People are desperate and end up getting screwed after the storm when a fly by night contractor shows up and takes their money for shoddy unpermitted work.

Jupiter Sunsation

Asheville is a mess, a friend is up there this week to close on a house. Library is the only place with internet, cell service is super spotty. They were NOT prepared for the deluge of water (later mud).

hogie roll

Parents got 3’ in the house, st Pete beach. Weren’t allowed to go out there until Saturday late afternoon. Flooding was Thursday night. Kind of a late start to get the house cleaned out and dried out.

Contents uninsured to manage premium and our experience with a total loss on a house in a tornado was that insurance barely pays on contents anyways.