Photographer
rxz
Posts: 1101
Glen Ellyn, Illinois, US
to the shorelines along the Gulf of Mexico (especially Florida) or near National Forests out west, this should provide some incentive. Washington Post Home insurers cut natural disasters from policies as climate risks grow https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/home … 46840.html
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Shadow Dancer
Posts: 9781
Bellingham, Washington, US
rxz wrote:
to the shorelines along the Gulf of Mexico (especially Florida) or near National Forests out west, this should provide some incentive.
Washington Post
Home insurers cut natural disasters from policies as climate risks grow
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/home … 46840.html It's always better to be up the hill a bit and back from the big water a bit as well.
North of Bellingham, Birch Bay and Blaine will be destroyed if there is a tsunami.
We have active volcanos and earthquakes (mostly mild) so it's a matter of when rather than if.
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rxz
Posts: 1101
Glen Ellyn, Illinois, US
Shadow Dancer wrote:
It's always better to be up the hill a bit and back from the big water a bit as well.
North of Bellingham, Birch Bay and Blaine will be destroyed if there is a tsunami.
We have active volcanos and earthquakes (mostly mild) so it's a matter of when rather than if. I did a little searching and read about the Jan 1700 Cascadia quake and resulting tsunami. The folks that do historical research on quakes believe a major quake in that area occurs every 300-500 years. I'm guessing folks living near the Pacific from British Columbia to Northern California hope they're wrong or it is delayed for a few hundred more years.
A little over 200 years ago the New Madrid quake occurred where the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers join. It's said tremors from the quake rang church bells in Philadelphia. Another one of those could shake up the country.
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Shadow Dancer
Posts: 9781
Bellingham, Washington, US
rxz wrote:
I did a little searching and read about the Jan 1700 Cascadia quake and resulting tsunami. The folks that do historical research on quakes believe a major quake in that area occurs every 300-500 years. I'm guessing folks living near the Pacific from British Columbia to Northern California hope they're wrong or it is delayed for a few hundred more years.
A little over 200 years ago the New Madrid quake occurred where the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers join. It's said tremors from the quake rang church bells in Philadelphia. Another one of those could shake up the country. Truly, there is no safe place in this world.
To be honest, I suspect wildfires will be more of a problem in the Great Northwest. We've had some pretty bad smoke in Bellingham from fires in eastern WA and BC just this summer. That is not unusual. Living amongst the trees off yonder on a poorly maintained road is a recipe for disaster but many people gravitate in that direction. As the climate gets warmer and our summers get drier things will get worse.
When we put fires out the fuel on the ground multiplies. If we don't put the fires out, people living in the woods will die.
Difficult set of parameters to navigate!
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Managing Light
Posts: 2678
Salem, Virginia, US
rxz wrote:
to the shorelines along the Gulf of Mexico (especially Florida) or near National Forests out west, this should provide some incentive. You might want to look up the US Gov maps of Florida predicting what will be under water as the mean ocean level rises. Not that it will happen soon, but it seem logical that those lands that will still be above water in the mid-future will retain or grow in value, and those which will be under water will fall.
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Kevin K
Posts: 2782
Palm Coast, Florida, US
Not a chance in hell I'd ever want to live on the west coast of Florida, or the SE coast. Too many hurricane hits for me.
I've lived in NE of Florida since 2001. Lived in St. Augustine on Anastasia Island in 03 and 04 when we went thru all the hurricane names and into the alpha names. My area got spanked some, but nothing too bad. Actually hasn't been a direct hit since 1963 in my area.
Home insurance has got bad. Mine doubled from 2021 to 2022, and I've never had a claim. Policy is thru Progressive, but ASI is the actual company. I do have really good insurance thou, with $500 deductible for hurricanes.
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Joe Tomasone
Posts: 12598
Spring Hill, Florida, US
Kevin Fair wrote:
Not a chance in hell I'd ever want to live on the west coast of Florida, or the SE coast. Too many hurricane hits for me. The trick is not to live TOO close to the coast. Basically, stay east of US-19 and you're reasonably OK. West of 19? Not so much. Too many canals, rivers, and estuaries wnere flooding presents a major problem.
Photographer
Lallure Photographic
Posts: 2086
Taylors, South Carolina, US
The Gulf Coast is always going to be, a hurricane zone. I lived in Miami, before, and went through a major storm there. Fortunately, I was living well away from the coast. Couldn't get out for a week, afterwards, and while we had some minor damage, nothing major, and while the street was flooded, the house was not. We still had water flowing UP the jealousy window panes, and coning inside the house, so we had to keep mopping up during the storm, and the patio door, had to be taped, to prevent it from shattering in the winds. It literally pulsed like a living thing.
The west coast seems determined to burn down. They do nothing about that, and Canada is even worse. The forests may be nice in fair conditions, but a wildfire can wipe you out, completely.
There are, of course, potential problems for weather disasters of one kind or another, in lots of places. The issue there, is that insurance companies are beginning to refuse to provide insurance at ANY price, in some places, and that is a real problem. I don't see a solution to that. Houses have gotten too expensive overall, and that's why insurance has become a major problem.
In the Midwest, you encounter serious flooding, in the spring. In the desert Southwest, water resources are too limited. There are many tornadoes in all of the gulf states. You just have to research and pit the pluses against the cons, in your decision.
Rick
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LightDreams
Posts: 4462
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Insurance companies are very methodical when it comes to calculating exactly what types of coverage they offer where, and at what price.
If you want a quick way of finding out what the REALISTIC risks are for any given area, just consider what type of risks the Insurance Company "Risk Analysts" have decided to offer, or not offer, coverage for in that particular area. And at what price.
Long shots, that you might need coverage to file a rare / unexpected major damage claim for, are still their "bread and butter" business. Making "stupid bets" is not. And they're VERY good at it, including deciding where the particular type of coverage area lines should be drawn.
We all may like, or not like, their risk analysis findings. But I'd suggest thinking twice before ignoring them.
Photographer
Abbitt Photography
Posts: 13564
Washington, Utah, US
One should certainly consider the risk of natural disasters and related insurance coverages and premiums when considering a move. Hurricanes are a big reason I decided against Florida and opted for southern Utah instead.
I’m also renting, renters insurance costing me a whopping $100/year.
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rxz
Posts: 1101
Glen Ellyn, Illinois, US
Abbitt Photography wrote:
One should certainly consider the risk of natural disasters and related insurance coverages and premiums when considering a move. Hurricanes are a big reason I decided against Florida and opted for southern Utah instead.
I’m also renting, renters insurance costing me a whopping $100/year. Renters insurance covers your personal belonging. The building owner pays for insuring the structure. That cost is prorated across all the units and added to your rent.
Photographer
Kevin K
Posts: 2782
Palm Coast, Florida, US
Joe Tomasone wrote:
The trick is not to live TOO close to the coast. Basically, stay east of US-19 and you're reasonably OK. West of 19? Not so much. Too many canals, rivers, and estuaries wnere flooding presents a major problem. I'm in Palm Coast, 3.5 miles inland as the crow fly's.
When they built the town they put a lot of thought into canals for storm drainage. I've got one about 300 foot from my house.
My house is just west of 95 and east of US1.
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Joe Tomasone
Posts: 12598
Spring Hill, Florida, US
Kevin Fair wrote:
I'm in Palm Coast, 3.5 miles inland as the crow fly's.
When they built the town they put a lot of thought into canals for storm drainage. I've got one about 300 foot from my house.
My house is just west of 95 and east of US1. The issue isn't so much storm drainage as it is storm surge. If you have a strong storm pushing the water from the Atlantic (in your case), there's nowhere for the rain to drain TO - even if you get no inland surge flooding.
Much of the Gulf Coast from Sarasota County northward into parts of the panhandle had devestating amounts of storm surge from Idalia. One local park in Hernando County won't be reopened until November due to all the damage. Lots of people are still in shelters because their houses were damaged or destroyed.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 … ng-florida
Also of note: Many insurance companies are pulling out of Florida - Farmers being one recent example - over the history of and increasing hurricane vulnerability.
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SayCheeZ!
Posts: 20621
Las Vegas, Nevada, US
Joe Tomasone wrote:
Also of note: Many insurance companies are pulling out of Florida - Farmers being one recent example - over the history of and increasing hurricane vulnerability. Farmers Insurance pulling out of Florida should really make people wary.
The same thing happened along the gulf coast of TX, where I recently owned a house.
Most insurance companies fled... that was a dozen years ago. Farmers was one of only 3 that remained.
Also interesting. My house was 1/4 mile from an ocean bay, and 1/2 mile from the Gulf of Mexico.
My total insurance (regular plus hurricane) was about the same as what I pay in this god forsaken Nevada desert.
The house that I wanted to purchase was on Padre Island. It wasn't much different in size than the one I ended up buying, but hurricane insurance and property taxes made it so that I'd have to get a full time job just to pay it.
Photographer
SayCheeZ!
Posts: 20621
Las Vegas, Nevada, US
Shadow Dancer wrote:
It's always better to be up the hill a bit and back from the big water a bit as well.
North of Bellingham, Birch Bay and Blaine will be destroyed if there is a tsunami.
We have active volcanos and earthquakes (mostly mild) so it's a matter of when rather than if. rxz wrote:
I did a little searching and read about the Jan 1700 Cascadia quake and resulting tsunami. The folks that do historical research on quakes believe a major quake in that area occurs every 300-500 years. I'm guessing folks living near the Pacific from British Columbia to Northern California hope they're wrong or it is delayed for a few hundred more years.
A little over 200 years ago the New Madrid quake occurred where the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers join. It's said tremors from the quake rang church bells in Philadelphia. Another one of those could shake up the country. I recently watched a sciene show (I think it was Nova on PBS) about Lahars in Washington (the flow of melted snow and ice resulting from a volcano eruption), and the danger the possess. It seems as even though most people in the area know about them, and there are signs specifically showing escape routes from them)but fairly large towns are built directly in the path of them.
OK, so they don't happen OFTEN, but they do happen! It shocks the shit out of me that anyone would build anything with a population on them.
Photographer
Shadow Dancer
Posts: 9781
Bellingham, Washington, US
SayCheeZ! wrote:
I recently watched a sciene show (I think it was Nova on PBS) about Lahars in Washington (the flow of melted snow and ice resulting from a volcano eruption), and the danger the possess. It seems as even though most people in the area know about them, and there are signs specifically showing escape routes from them)but fairly large towns are built directly in the path of them.
OK, so they don't happen OFTEN, but they do happen! It shocks the shit out of me that anyone would build anything with a population on them. As above, they don't happen often but they do happen!
"Nevada is at risk from earthquakes, flooding, landslides, and other hazards."
https://nbmg.unr.edu/Research/GeologicH … 20hazards.
To add to the above, at some point Las Vegas will have a summer day (or several) with extremely high temperatures. I remember when I was a kid and Dad drove us through the Nevada desert on our way home to California. It was 117 degrees outside, our vehicle did not have air-conditioning so we filled a plastic bucket with ice, taped straws together so everyone could sit in their seats and drink water to keep from dehydrating. Miserable.
When that summer day comes (and yes, it "shocks the shit out of me" that anybody would build a city in the middle of a bleak, dry, HOT area)... EVERYBODY will crank up their air conditioning and the grid will overload and shut down. Unless you have a favorite nearby casino with their own generators, you will roast like a chicken. It's entirely possible that many people will pass on. It's happened before and will happen again. The link is from a heat wave in Fresno CA, my home town. I like it here better! https://gvwire.com/2023/06/29/fresno-he … be-deadly/
Just a matter of time, hot desert climates and over-population are a disaster waiting to happen.
Perspective...
Photographer
Joe Tomasone
Posts: 12598
Spring Hill, Florida, US
SayCheeZ! wrote:
Farmers Insurance pulling out of Florida should really make people wary. Yep - for some, the only insurance left is the State-funded insurer-of-last-resort Citizen's Insurance. Here's the lovely part: If any other insurance company gets hit with a massive bill from hurricane damage - more than it can pay out - it goes bankrupt. Citizens, on the other hand, gets the money from the State, who then passes it on TO THE TAXPAYERS via a special tax assessment. Lovely, eh?
Photographer
rxz
Posts: 1101
Glen Ellyn, Illinois, US
Joe Tomasone wrote:
Yep - for some, the only insurance left is the State-funded insurer-of-last-resort Citizen's Insurance. Here's the lovely part: If any other insurance company gets hit with a massive bill from hurricane damage - more than it can pay out - it goes bankrupt. Citizens, on the other hand, gets the money from the State, who then passes it on TO THE TAXPAYERS via a special tax assessment. Lovely, eh? Cool. But I don't need any added incentive not to move to Florida. I can live with my high property taxes, state sales tax, and all that fresh water from Lake Michigan I get to drink every day. My second house was hit by lightning but that can happen anywhere.
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Abbitt Photography
Posts: 13564
Washington, Utah, US
rxz wrote:
Renters insurance covers your personal belonging. The building owner pays for insuring the structure. That cost is prorated across all the units and added to your rent. I’ve read differing reports about how rent in the St George area compares to the national average, but appears to be average to below average. I imagine the insurance component of rent is low because loss via natural disasters is fairly rare and home owner’s insurance in Utah is 42% below the national average. We are low risk for hurricanes, tornadoes, and fires, though I did read there was some minor tornado damage back in 1990s. We did have above average flooding this year which closed parts of the bike trail for a few days.
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