Category: Fort Myers Hurricane Insurance Attorney

Given the devastation caused by hurricane Michael to Florida last October, there is still plenty to be done, especially as a number of property owners are still waiting for their insurance companies to ‘make them whole’ in terms of their losses. In an effort to provide some relief to affected Florida property owners, on April 16, Florida state lawmakers moved legislation that aims to provide assistance to Floridians that are still recovering from the hurricane. Specifically, Senate Appropriations approved two bills to provide assistance in debris removal, housing, infrastructure, and other necessary repairs.

Funds Set Aside for Hurricane Recovery

One provision would also create a $300 million program of “rainy day” funds for local governments and school boards, allowing them to prioritize funds for housing needs, task forces to oversee recovery efforts, and improving building codes.

If the bills are implemented, total Florida state commitment on Hurricane Michael recovery would come to almost $2 billion. In addition, another bill that was approved on April 16 would take some funds set aside for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill and allow them to, instead, be used for hurricane recovery needs. The measure would direct the state Department of Economic Opportunity to designate a number of recovery infrastructure project priorities, especially in counties such as Calhoun, Jackson, Liberty, Jefferson, Holmes, Jackson, Gadsden, and Washington.

Seven months after Hurricane Michael hit Florida, the estimated losses from the Category 5 storm are currently over $50 billion. Property damage alone reportedly accounts for more than $5 billion, and many property owners’ claims have gone unpaid by insurance companies that are supposed to make them whole again in times like these. In addition, federal disaster relief funding has been stuck in gridlock and affected by other devastated areas, such as California and Iowa, as well as other hurricane effected neighbors of Florida.

Hurricane Michael hit Florida with significantly more force than even Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana. The storm was especially felt in coastal cities such as Apalachicola, Panama City, and a number of others; shredding boats, businesses, and homes, and causing a number of people to go missing. People not only lost property, but a number of individuals died as well as a result of the disaster. To date, some residents are still without power. Even a number of Florida parks are still closed today. For example, the hurricane destroyed 80 to 90 percent of Florida Caverns State Park and its buildings. Thousands of trees are still uprooted throughout the state and its national forests, with agricultural and forestry losses representing more than $3 billion. There is no question that, in order to rebuild, people are going to need a lot of help.

Hurricane Michael has been labeled the “third-most intense Atlantic hurricane to make landfall in the United States.” As of November 26, more than 43 deaths in Florida have been linked to the disaster, with 23 of them all hitting Bay County alone. On Thanksgiving Day, thousands of Floridians remained homeless because they lost everything to the hurricane.

In addition to taking human lives, Hurricane Michael has done significant damage to Florida’s panhandle crops, which will inevitably involve a number of complicated insurance claims to be filed, as we discuss below.

Crop Producers Hardest Hit

When the hurricane hit, bell pepper, squash, and tomato producers were only approximately five days into their season, and were the hardest hit, which included approximately 200 acres of bell peppers and anywhere between 1,000 and 1,500 acres of tomatoes. According to reports, these producers lost approximately 90 percent of their crops. In addition, starting over with their crops has been tremendously difficult because the crop stakes were reportedly blown over and exposed to sun damage, and many of the packinghouses were also significantly damaged from the hurricane, leaving producers with nowhere to go to pack their products.