Florida homeowners are getting sticker shock with skyrocketing costs of home insurance policies. With brutal hurricanes repeatedly pounding the state and destroying homes, insurance companies have either pulled out of the market or drastically raised their rates, costing owners several thousand dollars or more a year, leaving owners in a costly burden or gambling without coverage.
Now California is seeing Allstate, Farmers and State Farm insurance companies no longer renewing home policies after years of wildfires destroying homes throughout the state, costing the companies billions each year.
What will happen if Hawaii gets hit with a Category 5 hurricane? This is not as implausible as it sounds. It’s not a matter of if but when, more so as climate change is elevating ocean temperatures to record levels increasing the hurricane’s strength, especially in an El Niño season (“El Niño stirs trouble,” Insight, Star-Advertiser, June 11).
Will insurance companies stop renewals of policies or pull out of the market? I think it would be prudent for the state to reinstate the Hawaii Hurricane Relief Fund to prepare for this eventual situation.
Jon Shimamoto
Mililani
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