Sep 08 2008
Who Pays the Average Person’s Hurricane Costs?
There was a question asked on CNN last night about the costs of hurricanes they showed people in Cuba getting prepared to face Hurricane Ike, but the response was more on a national scale regarding finance for rebuilding etc. It would have been interesting to know how much it costs the average person to weather a hurricane, and where the supplies come from.
For example, in the build up to Hurricane Gustav we saw people filling up sandbags, where do the sandbags come from and do people have to pay for them in order to try to protect their property, or are they provided free through some scheme? What about boarding for windows? What if you can’t do that yourself and need someone to do it for you, is this supplied free or can you only have it done if you can afford to pay someone from your own finances.
In the aftermath of Katrina it was found that many of the people who stayed did so because they couldn’t afford to move out of the city. It wasn’t just the transportation issue, but also the accommodation one.
Who is responsible for your home once you have obeyed a mandatory evacuation? Is your insurance likely to cover any losses that come via the hurricane? What about looters? Does your policy cover any items taken by thieves who enter your property whilst you are evacuated? What if you stay behind and you are hurt, are you likely to have your insurance company pay out compensation? What if you have no insurance? What if you don’t even have any money in your budget to buy a quantity of bottled water to get you through the first few days until organizations such as FEMA help restore some form of aid or basic resources? If you have to evacuate and are unable to go to work, are you paid or is this unpaid leave another expense to add to the list of what it costs to live in an area under a hurricane alert?
With many people living on low incomes, increased housing costs, and probably paying minimum or no insurance premiums, how are people financing the hurricane situation and damage? With the increased power and frequency of these hurricanes, perhaps this is something that needs to be addressed when there’s a new face behind the desk in the Oval Office after the election.
If anyone’s facing a hurricane situation (or any other potential disaster situation for that matter) check out the Preparedness blog here at today.com for some useful advice on getting prepared.
4 Responses to “Who Pays the Average Person’s Hurricane Costs?”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Not A Member? Register for Free!
Good Questions. In the Philippines where I came from, we also have hurricanes… we only call them typhoons there. And this is also the time of the year we experience them. Our government have calamity funds but that will be spend only for the immediate needs of the people during the typhoon and that is mainly for food and other special needs of the moment. Other than that the funds go for the repairing of the roads and other public places like the school. But for those people who are victims of the calamity, usually NGOs and other charitable organizations are giving the victims the help they need but that is not enough.
Ruthi
http://changingseasons.today.com
Unfortunately the legacy of Katrina is that insurance companies have been allowed to find a reason not to pay even when citizens have paid their premiums. The argument that “surge” damage is water and not wind is ridiculous! Without wind, there is no surge. The federal government’s bailout of Freddie/Fannie is made all the more interesting when taken in context of their failure to hold insurance companies to account when they failed the insured victims of Katrina. Those who could not afford to leave have generally been faulted for their own situation… Brinkley’s The Great Deluge is truly so good on this. Thank you for this post. Nature is always there to remind us we really are not in control.
~k
This is a very good topic - some may argue that there is warning to prepare for a hurricane, but even if that is true, the same cannot be said of all natural disasters. Earthquakes (with no notice) and river floods (with little to no notice) can also be truly devastating to a community. Standard insurance doesn’t cover these things either.
It is sad that most insurance coverages do not cover enough to replace everything you lose in a hurricane.