Insurers Say Andrew Prepared Them for Charley

Hurricane Charley probably will not cause Floridians’ insurance premiums to skyrocket like 1992’s Andrew, and fewer insurers should go bankrupt from paying out damages expected to reach the billions of dollars, state and industry officials said Saturday.

They say previous premium increases and overhauls made because of Andrew, the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history, will help pay for Charley.

But some of those changes will mean the deductibles homeowners have to pay for Charley’s damage could be thousands of dollars higher. State officials also warned Floridians to watch out for unscrupulous people trying to make money from the hurricane.

Insurance claims adjusters descended on the state Saturday to begin surveying the disaster, which is expected to cause the most losses from a natural disaster in Florida since Andrew devastated much of southern Miami-Dade County.

Charley caused widespread damage to oceanfront homes and trailer parks when it came ashore in southwest Florida a day earlier with 233 kph (145 mph) winds and crossed the state to Daytona Beach. About 1 million people lived in the area around where the Category 4 storm made landfall.

Among the hard-hit were two counties in the Fort Myers area where thousands of mobile homes were in Charley’s path. Officials said hundreds of expensive beachfront homes on barrier islands, such as tourist destination Sanibel-Captiva, were damaged or destroyed.

Andrew, a stronger Category 5 storm with 265 kph (165 mph) winds, caused about $20 billion in insured property losses, according to estimates adjusted for inflation. Eleven smaller insurance companies went bankrupt, and about 930,000 policyholders were left with no coverage options.

Charley “is the type of storm our system is developed to handle” without tremendous rate increases or insurer bankruptcies, Florida Insurance Council spokesman Sam Miller said.

The Insurance Information Institute believes Charley will cost “at least several billion dollars,” but the industry will be able to make those payments, spokeswoman Loretta Worters said.

“They have enough in reserves so that isn’t a problem,” she said.

Some residents in Charley’s strike zone were doubtful about the industry’s promises.

As Fran and Roy Zimmerman cleaned up the mess at their Punta Gorda home, they expected their annual homeowners insurance bill to surpass its current cost of $2,000.

“They have to pay out so much more, they’ll want to get it back,” Fran Zimmerman said. “There’s no doubt about that.”

Miller said premiums that increased an average of 100 percent statewide and 200 percent in South Florida after Andrew mean the insurers are better prepared financially.

“That was painful but all that (money) is in the system now,” Miller said. “We were woefully unprepared for Andrew.”

The state has also overhauled insurance regulations since 1992. Florida now has a $15 billion Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, which provides reinsurance, or insurance for the companies themselves, to help them pay for major disasters.

Lawmakers also created a state-regulated insurer of last resort for people who couldn’t get coverage in the private market. Nowknown as Citizens Property Insurance Corp., it provides hurricane coverage for about 812,000 homes in Florida.

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Topics Florida Carriers Hurricane