Florida always comes back

Day by day, it’s looking more like home. 

Sure, there is still a long way to go. A few weeks ago, a resident of Fort Myers Beach told us he was just finishing up final repairs on his home — two years after Hurricane Ian pretty much obliterated the island.

And there are still plenty of raw emotions and challenges that thousands of residents from Manatee and Sarasota counties are working through.

Many homeowners in the Buttonwood Harbor neighborhood on Longboat Key saw their 57-year-old, ground-level homes washed out during Hurricane Helene. One homeowner told us his flood insurance won’t come close to covering the damage. After assessing what it would take to restore their home, he and his wife determined the home is totaled. They plan to sell the lot and move to the mainland. The evacuations have them worn out.

Up the road, at the Spanish Main Yacht Club development of single-family villas, there is a similar challenge. Helene destroyed many of the interiors of the 56-year-old units. In the weeks after Helene and Milton, residents have been debating whether to rebuild or sell their entire complex. It’s an emotional issue.

Indeed, the travails of recovery are everywhere. And no one really knows how long this will take in Sarasota and Manatee counties to feel like we did pre-storms. Hurricane scars last a lifetime. Anyone here 30 years from now still will remember vividly Debby, Helene and Milton of 2024.

But count on this: We’ll be back. We’ll recover. And we’ll be more resilient structurally than we were before the storms.

Here is one measure: Not surprisingly, in the years that followed Hurricane Andrew in 1992 in Miami-Dade, Hurricane Charley in 2004 in Charlotte County and Hurricane Ian in 2022 in Lee County, the counties’ populations declined. But in the second year after the hurricanes, population totals rose to higher levels than what they were at the time of the hurricanes.

People have short memories, and the allure of Florida vis-à-vis other places remained compelling in spite of the threat of hurricanes. 

What’s more, we adjust — to be better prepared for the next one. While the damage to so many was devastating, at the same time, you can say the structural resilience actually was impressive. 

After Hurricanes Andrew and Charley, blue tarps covered the roofs of blocks of neighborhoods for months. Today, perhaps you see one here, maybe another there. Most high-rises hardly appear damaged from the outside. They were most vulnerable in the grade-level garages where Helene and Milton’s surges destroyed hundreds of cars that were not moved to the mainland or shorted the electricity in elevators.

All things considered the lack of homes lifted off their foundations and seen floating down streets — as happened on Fort Myers Beach — is a testament to Florida’s building codes. When we asked an insurance CEO with offices along the Gulf Coast where the worst damage was, he said Palmetto. The reason: old wood and stucco structures built in the 1960s that haven’t been updated.

Photos by Matt Walsh

Asked what lesson is likely to come from these storms, Joshua McCarthy, Shepherd Insurance’s Florida manager, said, “The interest level for flood insurance is through the roof.” 

Homeowners found out the National Flood Insurance Program’s coverages are inadequate. “They didn’t realize they didn’t have loss-of-use coverage to put them up in hotels or take care of those additional expenses,” he said. 

“The positive is people are going to give flood insurance more attention, and they’re going to be more willing to purchase it even if it is not required by their lender,” McCarthy said.

Another positive: It appears Florida is going to avoid another statewide insurance crisis, as was experienced for the three years after Hurricane Irma in 2017. 

Although total wind and flood losses are estimated around $50 billion — a top three in losses — insurers appear to have the capital and reinsurance to cover the claims and not go bankrupt.

“The amount of flood damage versus wind is in [the property insurers’] favor,” McCarthy said. “We haven’t had one of the property carriers express any concern. In fact, we’ve heard the opposite: ‘We’re going to be ok.’”

The most crucial carrier that sits atop the industry as Florida’s largest insurer is the taxpayer-owned Citizens Property Insurance Corp. As a state-owned entity, it has the legal authority to impose what is known as the Citizens assessment — a surcharge on every policy to make up capital shortfalls. 

Michael Peltier, spokesman for Citizens, said Tuesday Citizens will have the reserves and reinsurance coverage it will need to fulfill its claims. He said Citizens will not need to levy assessments or surcharges on taxpayers to cover claims.

Peltier said Citizens so far has received 3,022 claims from Hurricane Debby; 14,241 from Helene: and 54,472 claims from Milton. 

That Citizens isn’t in crisis mode is a solid indicator the insurance reforms the Legislature adopted two years ago are having positive effects. Minor roof repairs are not being turned into total replacements, and, McCarthy said, “We’ve seen a big drop in lawsuits.”

Altogether, we are Florida strong.