DAILY TRIFECTA: Mother Nature Has Sent Our Bill To Collections
The High Price Of Doing Nothing
TITLE: Climate Disasters Are Making Homeowners Insurance Much More Expensive in These 5 States
EXCERPTS: Unfortunately, research from the First Street Foundation that analyzed the risk of wildfire, wind damage, and flooding over the next 30 years says this is just the beginning. It says some properties could become "uninsurable," while some homeowners will need to pay much higher premiums. On top of that, researchers warn of a "climate bubble" that could reduce the value of your home.
The First Street Foundation says almost 7 million properties have already been impacted by higher rates or canceled policies. By 2053, it predicts that figure will rise to over 39 million properties -- around a quarter of American homes. Let's take a look at the states where home insurance premiums have already skyrocketed and find out what you can do to reduce your risk.
If you search for average homeowners insurance premiums online, you'll find many different figures. One reason is that rates are changing so quickly -- the Insurance Information Institute (Triple I) predicts Florida insurance rates would increase by 40% in 2023.
We've used average annual premiums from Insurify's latest report and predictions for 2023 home insurance below.
1. Florida: $7,788
According to Insurify, average home insurance in hurricane-prone Florida is $7,788 -- more than four times the national average of $1,784. The state has been battered by storms in the past couple of decades. On top of which, Triple I says the state's insurance industry has been beset with fraud and abuse. "Six insurers became insolvent in 2022, while more than a dozen others either left the state or placed moratoriums on writing new business," it said in a policy brief.
2. Oklahoma: $6,853
Oklahoma consistently ranks as one of the most expensive states for home insurance. Located in Tornado Alley, Oklahoma homes are also at risk from earthquake, hail, and storm damage. Interestingly, the First Street research puts fewer properties in its "insurance bubble" -- at risk of higher rates or canceled policies -- than many other parts of the country.
3. Louisiana: $5,353
Homeowners in Louisiana are grappling with high premiums for both home and flood insurance. Not only is there a high hurricane risk, low-lying areas are particularly prone to flooding. According to First Street, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, which is the insurer of last resort for wind and storm insurance, recently increased rates in Louisiana by an average of 63% across the state year over year.
4. Alabama: $5,102
The Council on Foreign Relations highlights Alabama's weak disaster codes in the face of "growing threats from worsening storms and sea-level rise." What that means is that building standards in the state don't offer adequate protection against the type of climate disasters that could hit its properties. Alabama is at risk of flooding, rising sea levels, tropical storms, and hurricanes.
5. Kansas: $5,005
Located in Tornado Alley, Kansans also face a high risk of hail, wind, and flooding. The Environmental Protection Agency says there are about 100 tornadoes every year in the state. It predicts summer droughts as well as potential flooding. "Rainstorms are becoming more intense, and floods are becoming more severe," said an EPA report.
TITLE: As Waters Rise, a Community Must Decide: Do We Stay or Go?
EXCERPT: Brenda Whitfield recalled the first major flood at her home in the Eastwick section of Southwest Philadelphia, when Hurricane Floyd filled her ground floor with five feet of water. “I was scared half to death,” she said of the 1999 storm. “The water was coming, and the next thing I knew my husband was like, ‘Brenda, you got to leave.’” She rushed with her children to a relative’s house in a higher section of Eastwick while her husband stayed home. “We saw canoes coming to get pets and seniors here,” she said.
Since Floyd, there have been Tropical Storms Ivan and Charlie in 2004; Hurricanes Irene and Sandy in 2011 and 2012, respectively; Tropical Storm Isaias in 2020; and Hurricane Ida in 2021, each of which flooded parts of Eastwick with up to five and a half feet of muddy water. And then there were the smaller storms that left Whitfield and her neighbors with water in their basements and lingering questions about whether the community will remain habitable as climate change brings ever more flooding.
Whitfield, 75, has lived in her three-story townhouse on Saturn Place, in the “Planet Streets” section of Eastwick, for 43 years. Located about a quarter-mile from the confluence of Cobbs and Darby Creeks, the neighborhood has experienced 20 floods during those years.
Now, she and her neighbors are contemplating predictions that flooding will worsen as sea-level rise from the nearby Delaware River, and a tidal section of the adjacent Schuylkill River, produce higher storm surges. Most of the neighborhood lies 11 feet below the level of the Delaware River.
Meanwhile, bigger and more frequent storms linked with a warming climate are swelling the volume of the creeks that bear down on the majority-Black community from points higher in their watersheds.
“Every time it rains, and every time they say it’s severe weather, we get anxiety, we can’t sleep,” said Whitfield, who is captain of her block and the secretary of Eastwick United, a community group dedicated to finding ways to make Eastwick resilient to flooding.
Across the United States, low-lying communities face similar hydrological challenges: how to protect people and property from rising seas and increased inland flooding. Many of these places are low-income communities of color. But low-lying Eastwick, with a majority Black population and a history of pollution, has long-standing socioeconomic challenges that make adaptation especially urgent and difficult.
EXCERPT: As climate change accelerates natural catastrophes, the disaster-restoration industry has capitalized on low-wage immigrant labor. These workers — who clear debris and build anew after hurricanes, floods and wildfires — perform the most arduous tasks. And this comes at a health cost for those exposed to harmful toxins like mold, asbestos and lead. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the federal agency created to protect workers, has ignored research on workplace safeguards against post-disaster toxic exposures. OSHA has enacted an emergency-response policy favoring a fast recovery over worker health.
This booming industry runs on mostly working-age and undocumented migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean who fled poverty, violence and natural disasters in their homelands. Preoccupied with survival, they can fall victim to abuses routinely inflicted upon immigrant workers in the U.S. — wage theft, harassment. But these workers also contend with an overlooked threat: the potentially lethal contaminants propagated by climate-fueled disasters.
Many disaster-restoration workers are exposed to known carcinogens and various toxins, often unwittingly and without protections, which can make them sick, an investigation by CJI and Public Integrity found. Some suffer debilitating health issues long after they’ve left cleanup jobs.
CJI and Public Integrity asked 100 restoration workers primarily based in Florida and Louisiana to share their employment experiences. Nearly all said they tore out drywall and busted up sheetrock following a climate disaster. Most worked at least three events over seven years — from Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana (2005) to Hurricane Harvey in Texas (2017) and Hurricane Ian in Florida (2022) — drawing out their toxic exposures across multiple worksites. Many started this work in the wake of Katrina, the first of what would be 13 billion-dollar tropical cyclones to hit New Orleans in the 18 years since.
More than two-thirds of workers said they were exposed to asbestos, lead and mold on the job; of those, all but two said they experienced health symptoms linked to these toxins, such as skin and eye irritations, respiratory issues and headaches. Some said they’ve developed chronic ailments caused by these pollutants, including lung cancer, asthma and vision loss. Others said they don’t know about the long-term impact on their health because they don’t have access to a doctor.
Linda Birnbaum, who headed the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences before retiring in 2019, calls the workers’ responses “depressing.” The number of workers sickened by post-disaster cleanups “is only going to get worse,” she said, “unless there are steps taken to reduce their exposure.”
Great post, JP. This could really mess up my wife and on, on a fixed income and paying a very reasonable yearly amount for home insurance. Now I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop!