[TheBigB]

Why the H-E-double-hockey-sticks would anyone live in FL and not have hurricane insurance?

[dljordan]

Well, maybe because the elderly and poor can't afford insurance. Not to excuse anyone for being poor or anything.

[A CA Guy]

Some may not be able to get it.

Many have similar problems getting earthquake insurance in California unless you had grandfathered in old policies and never dropped them.

[monday]

"Why the H-E-double-hockey-sticks would anyone live in FL and not have hurricane insurance?"

Difficult to get if you live in a mobile home, and more expensive than it's worth if you can get it. Cheaper to just buy another mobile home and start over.

[FlJoePa]

"Why the H-E-double-hockey-sticks would anyone live in FL and not have hurricane insurance?"

You talk like it's easily available and affordable. It's not.

I live between the ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway, and no one will write a flood insurance policy for me. NO ONE.

I have to buy my condo insurance (I live in a townhome, where the structure is insured through my HOA, but I have to insure the contents) through the state - where basically other taxpayers are picking up part of the tab for the high rates.

I bought my place the year before Andrew and paid $92/year to insure my belongings (appliances, electronics, clothing, etc.). Now I pay just under $2000/year. And this is not including the portion that the state picks up!

If my mortgage company didn't require it, I wouldn't pay it.

[snooker]

The requirement for hurricane insurance is a tangle of regulations and extremely expensive. Sort of like earthquake insurance in CA. The need/requirement varies with distance from the beach. So a lot of people were well inland and the regs said in many instances it wasn't needed.

CHARLEY broke the rules and you could have used hurricane insurance in Orlando. Who knew.

I have friends that fled St. Petersburg and went to Orlando and ended up right in the path with winds clocking 105 mph. We live real close to the beach south of the actual track of CHARLEY and had winds of just 50 mph.

Just because you can see hurricanes coming doesn't mean they are any more predictable than earthquakes.

But it's amazing what we can do with the temperature prediction 100 years from now. We just can't tell where hurricanes are going in the next two hours. You figure it out.