Outside of Florida, roughly 99% of homeowners that sustained flooding are not covered, Insurance Information Institute estimates.
Homeowners whose properties were swamped by Hurricane Helene’s torrential rainfall face a serious problem beyond drying out: how to pay for the cleanup.
That’s because most Americans, including in the communities ravaged by the massive storm, lack flood insurance.
As the aftermath of the hurricane’s ruinous and deadly route across the Southeast illustrates, the alarming lack of flood insurance coverage among an overwhelming majority of people impacted serves as a cautionary tale for the rest of us, experts say.
Along Florida’s barrier islands that run from St. Petersburg to Clearwater, mansions, single-family homes, apartments, mobile homes, restaurants, bars and shops were completely destroyed or heavily damaged by the storm in minutes. In hard-hit Pinellas and Taylor counties, victims with storm coverage ranged from 25% to 5%, respectively, according to the Insurance Information Institute.
Outside of the Sunshine State, the picture is even more dire, with just 1% of homeowners who sustained flooding from Helene holding flood insurance, the institute said.
