CNN anchor mentions "hurricane insurance".

[trof]

As far as I know, there's no such thing as "hurricane insurance".
Homeowner's generally covers fire, wind and hail, wind driven water (usually defined as "rain").

But it's something I've been thinking about a lot lately.
Why not hurricane insurance?
I don't know what it would cost, but it would do away with the hair-splitting about whether a storm surge is "flooding" or wind driven water.

[SteppingRazor]

1. Yes, but that hair-splitting saves the insurance companies millions...

Got wind driven water insurnace, but not flood? Then when your house floods because of a hurricane, they can screw you.

Got flood insurance, but not wind/water? Then when a hurricane takes your roof off, they can screw you again.

If they allowed a blanket hurricane insurance policy, they wouldn't be able to do this.

[trotsky]

3. And you can bet that even after the payouts are done for this year,

insurance companies will STILL have made money.

[Missy M]

2. It would probably cost a fortune for hurricane insurance.....

so the poor and middle class would have a hard time paying the premiums, leaving them right where they are now.

[Booster]

5. I'm sure it would be like earthquake ins here in CA. Your

deductible is usually around $30,000 so very few of us have it.

[Missy M]

6. That is quite a deductible. Are the actual insurance premiums high?

[SoCalDem]

10. Premiums are high as well.. the whole "insurance" is just a way to

further protect the people who could already afford to rebuild..and to wring a few more bucks out of the middle class who don't read the fine print until AFTER they file a claim.. They find out THEN that they are responsible for the first 25% OF DAMAGE (don;t know the actual percentage)..but as housing continues to "artificially inflate", the amount YOU are responsible for does also..

A huge earthquake will turn a lot of us into "former-californians".

[Booster]

12. I had a friend whose house was damaged in the Whittier earthquake

and it was a whole lot cheaper for her to get the 2% loan from the government to repair the house than having ins with the high premiums and high deductible. I'm sure when ins salesmen sell one of these policies, they must have a big laugh back at the office.

[SoCalDem]

9. Same with us.. Any "loss" over about $5k would do us in and

turn us into renters.. We would have to walk away and let the bank take back the rubble:(

[demo dutch]

4. "Wind damage" in FL covers hurricane damage only, flood insurance

covers water related damage. The insurance is called "Citizens Property Insurance Corp" and is run by the state of FL. It's the insurance of last resort as most major insurance companies left the state refusing to underwrite. It costs an enormous amount of money to every homeowner and it's a nightmare!
What needs to happen in my view is that all hurricane prone states pool together and create a Wind damage insurance along the same lines as the Fed flood insurance. It's the only way to bring down the enormous cost to homeowners.

See local piece
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041210/NEWS/412100520/1385/SPECIAL0110

[SoCalDem]

7. Hurricane insurance would be a stupid move for companies

because they are a GIVEN .... EVERY YEAR..

Tornado/Wind damage=possibility
Fire=possibility
Flood=possibility
Earthquake=possibility
Hurricane=Sure thing

and most of the other hazards are fairly localized, but hurricanes are hundreds of miles across, and are combination threats..wind/tornado/fire/flooding..

The coverage would either be too expensive for ordinary people to afford, or the pay-outs would be so huge, the companies would buckle under the expense..

The ONLY solution is for the GOVERNMENT to start using those billions in reparation costs to BUY OUT and help relocate people away from the :Storm Coast" of the US, and let Nature reclaim what it tries to every year (and sometimes succeeds)..

It would be cheaper and safer in the long run..

It makes NO sense to continually hand out money to rebuild stuff that will just get whacked again and again..

There should be NO PERMANENT STRUCTURES on barrier islands..and limited building (and only self-insured) on the coasts that get hit again and again.. We have records going back a hundred years or more, so it's easy to know where those places are..

I favor a one-strike and you're OUT policy.. Through attrition, the storm coasts would eventually start costing us less and less in cash and lives ..

[Sgent]

8. This is

one of the central themes of the Mississippi lawsuit.

In Mississippi, the homeowners policy declaration page says:

"Hurricane Deductible" -- NOT THE FLOOD INS, BUT REG HOME INS.

Its the AG's opinion that "Hurricane Deductible" infers "Hurricane Insurance". In addition, all interpretavie issues in insurance must be read in a light most favorable to the policyholder.

[meg]

11. There are 3 kinds of insurance in Texas

I live on the Gulf Coast and have - fire/theft and wind/storm and flood insurance. Very expensive, but then the insurance industry owns the Texas gov.

I forgot to add that mold has been excluded. Didn't use to be. So it is extra for mold.