After at least six insurers went insolvent in Florida last year, Farmers on Tuesday became the latest to pull out of the Florida market, saying in a statement that the decision was based on risk exposure in the hurricane-prone state.
Climate change is threatening the very existence of some parts of Florida. And the costs are already being felt by Floridians. At the end of 2022, average annual property insurance premiums had already risen to more than $4,200 in Florida – three times the national average.
“This insurance trouble has been going on since Hurricane Andrew,” Andrea says, referencing the destructive category 5 hurricane that struck the Bahamas, Florida and Louisiana in August 1992.
“But it has been getting a lot worse over the past two years. The state of Florida has done zero in that period to help homeowners.”
Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, has been accused of dragging his feet on the insurance issue, as well as of a “catastrophic” approach to the climate crisis after saying he rejects the “politicization of the weather” and questioning whether hurricanes hitting Florida have been worsened by climate change…
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Article URL : https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/15/florida-hurricane-insurance-crisis-climate