Insurance isn't covering homeowners that had property damage from Hurricane Helene, and maybe even Milton

Question

Insurance companies are catorgizing hurricane Helene as a flood-driven event, and Milton as a wind and rain event, so homeowners without flood insurance would not be covered for damages. Reading the news article below, it states "While Hurricane Milton was both a wind and rain event, experts say property owners who lacked flood insurance may not be protected from water damage from Milton either, thanks to the way many insurance policies are written these days."

Answer 1

This news article is true. Many people are being denied insurance coverage because of the way insurance is set up. Home insurance covers rain and wind damage caused by hurricanes, but damages from floods have to be covered by a completely separate policy. In places where Hurricane Helene was the most damaging, "less than 1% of homes had flood insurance" states The Insurance Information Institute.

Hurricane Milton hit Florida the hardest, yet only 23% of homeowners had separate flood insurance on top of regular home insurance. Most homeowners don't know that floods aren't covered by regular insurance which screws over people trying to cover damages after natural disasters. Hurricane Helene was considered mostly a flood event while Hurricane Milton was considered a mostly wind and rain event. People are expected to predict which kind of insurance they need based on a storm that hasn't happened yet.

https://resilience.iii.org/disasters/floods/#/year=1992,2022&view=NFIPStatistics#3.5/38.88/-98

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/12/flood-insurance-hurricane-milton-helene

Answer 2

According to the article backing this claim, the director of corporate communications for the III, Mark Friedlander, stated that insurance companies in Florida were categorizing the storms as two separate events. An article from Al.com proved this to be true. Saying that, “Home insurance companies are categorizing Hurricane Helene and Milton as two separate events, meaning anyone who did not or could not document damage from Helene could face even greater odds that their claim will be denied if they were hit by both storms, leaving people to bear the costs alone”. This article literally provides a link back to Mark Friedlander and the NBC article used in the original claim too.

 

An article from the Guardian further backs this claim by saying that less than 1% of homes that were hit the hardest by Helene had flood insurance. The “quirk” in US home insurance is that flood insurance is separate from typical home insurance.

 

The guardian provided a link leading to the Insurance Information Institute interactive map that shows the entire United States and for each area it will tell you the number of policies and the number of housing units. Certain areas have less than 1% insured while other areas have more than or about 10% insured. Most of Florida is in the green, meaning that most households are insured, but unfortunately not all of these homes have the right kind of insurance to cover all the damages that Helene and Milton created.

 

 

https://www.al.com/reckon/2024/10/helene-and-milton-reveal-floridas-hopeless-home-insurance-disaster.html?outputType=amp

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/12/flood-insurance-hurricane-milton-helene

https://resilience.iii.org/disasters/floods/#/?year=1992,2022&view=NFIPStatistics#/?year=1992,2022&view=Floods#3.5/38.88/-98