Citizens Suspends Binding, Could Be Most Affected as Hurricane Aims for Big Bend

Florida property insurers were keeping their fingers crossed Tuesday as the latest projections indicated that the worst of Hurricane Idalia may miss some of the most heavily populated parts of the state’s west coast.

The National Hurricane Center predicted the eyewall of the Category 3 storm would push into the lightly populated Big Bend area, perhaps between Cedar Key and Crawfordville. But storm surge was expected in a wider area, bringing flooding to coastal areas as far south as Tampa Bay, according to weather service and news reports.

Citizens Property Insurance Corp. is likely to be the insurer most impacted. Data from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation show that Citizens writes some 3,400 policies in the three coastal counties that appear likely to take the brunt of the wind and waves: Taylor, Dixie and Levy. That’s more than 30% of the total coverage in that area, but a small number compared to the thousands of policies affected by Hurricane Ian in southwest Florida a year ago. The percentage is estimated: some insurers do not report their policy totals by county, calling it a trade secret.

Citizens suspended new policy binding, statewide, as of late Sunday.

“Agents may not bind applications for new coverage or policy changes for increased coverage, regardless of effective date, when a tropical storm or hurricane watch or warning has been issued by the National Weather Service for any part of the State of Florida,” reads the agent bulletin posted Sunday.

The OIR also issued a bulletin, urging insurance companies to be ready for claims and to follow their claims manuals and industry best practices.

“Insurers are encouraged to use all available resources to effectively facilitate the claims process for consumers,” reads the memo. Those methods may include photographs of damage, videos, video conferencing between adjusters and policyholders, the use of drones and remotely operated vehicles.

Policyholders may also use video and photos to assist in claims. Florida’s chief financial officer on Monday urged insureds in the path of the storm to photograph and video their homes before and after damage occurs. Insurers should respond to policyholder needs and maintain complete records, OIR said. The office may issue fines of up to $25,000 per each violation of the Florida Insurance Code.

“We’re prepared,” said Melissa Burt DeVriese, president of Security First Insurance, which had about 144,000 policies in force across Florida.

She noted that the carrier has shed more than 200,000 policies in recent years in Florida but has added employees and has 38 adjusters ready to inspect properties in affected areas. It also has contracts with independent adjuster firms.

Related: Unusually Warm Waters Fueling the Storm

Meanwhile, the number of private flood insurance companies has been growing in recent years and could feel some impact from storm surge and inland flooding.

“Flood insurance is a very concentrated market, with a limited number of insurers covering most of the insureds,” reads a report released this week from the AM Best financial rating firm said. “However, the number of private companies writing coverage has increased substantially, from 47 in 2016 to 198 in 2022.”

Recent rate increases for many properties, the result of FEMA’s new Risk Rating 2.0, should push more residents into the private flood coverage, AM Best said.

A look at Idalia’s path so far gives an idea of its potential destruction. Heavy rainfall in western Cuba could produce flooding and landslides, forecasters said, and hurricane-force winds were expected late Monday.

Idalia was expected to move northward Monday, then turn north-northeast on Tuesday and Wednesday and move at a faster pace. The center was forecast to pass over the extreme southeastern Gulf of Mexico by early Tuesday, and reach Florida’s western coast on Wednesday.

Along a vast stretch of Florida`s west coast, up to 11 feet (3.4 meters) of ocean water could surge on shore, raising fears of destructive flooding.

Large parts of the western coast of Florida are at risk of seawater surging onto land and flooding communities when a tropical storm or hurricane approaches. That part of Florida is very vulnerable to storm surges, Jamie Rhome, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center, said Sunday.

“So it will not take a strong system or a direct hit to produce significant storm surge,” he said.

In Cedar Key, a fishing village that juts out into the Gulf of Mexico, a storm surge is among the greatest concerns, said Capt. A.J. Brown, a fishing guide who operates A.J. Brown Charters. The concern is that if the storm strikes Florida just to the north, Cedar Key would get the powerful surge that comes from being on the southeastern side of the storm.

There are worries in Cedar Key about a storm surge, Brown said. If it reaches five feet (1.5 meters) “it would cover most everything downtown.”

Mexico’s National Meteorological Service on Sunday warned of intense to torrential rains showering the Yucatan Peninsula, with winds as fast as 55 mph (89 kph).

Florida has mobilized 1,100 National Guard members, and “they have at their disposal 2,400 high-water vehicles, as well as 12 aircraft that can be used for rescue and recovery efforts,” said Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor who is a candidate for the GOP presidential nomination.

“If you are in the path of this storm, you should expect power outages,” he added.

Update: This story has been corrected to show the correct number of in-house field adjusters at Security First Insurance.

Map at top: Idalia’s projected path, as of Tuesday morning. (NOAA)

Topics Catastrophe Florida Natural Disasters Hurricane