How Does Florida Insure Itself Against Hurricanes Like These?
Hurricane Milton would have done more damage if it had made landfall a few dozen miles farther north. The southern side of the hurricane, with its Category 3 winds spiraling counterclockwise, would have driven a wall of seawater into downtown Tampa. Instead, Tampa Bay got hit by the northern side of the hurricane, whose winds traveling from east to west pushed water from the bay out to sea. It was what meteorologists call a “negative surge.”
It was Florida’s fourth stroke of (relatively) good luck. Property damage from Hurricanes Idalia last year and Debby and Helene this year was also less than it might have been because they hit hardest in the lightly populated Big Bend, where the panhandle meets the peninsula.
Still, the Florida peninsula sticks out like a sore thumb into waters that keep getting warmer, brewing up fiercer and fiercer hurricanes. It’s only a matter of time until a monster storm does hit Tampa-St. Petersburg or Miami or another major metro area dead-on.
Getting insurance right in Florida isn’t the whole solution, but it’s a big one. When the insurance market is working correctly, losses are shared. Nobody gets financially wiped out. Also, the premiums people pay are based on the risks they face. This gets incentives right: People are motivated to harden their homes against storms or move out of harm’s way, which obviously helps them but also reduces costs for society as a whole.
