This story was originally published byGrist.
The problem is fast becoming a crisis that stretches far beyond the nations coastal states.
In response,insurers have raised premiums higher than everand dropped customers even in inland states such as Iowa.
Photo: Brandon Bell (Getty Images)
But the damage from these secondary perils has begun to add up.
Last year these storms causedmore than $50 billion in insured losses combinedabout as much as2022s massive Hurricane Ian.
The scale of loss sent the insurance industry reeling.
The cost of rebuilding a home has increased due to inflation and supply-chain shortages, which drives up prices.
Whatever the cause, this loss trend is making business much harder for many insurance companies.
Most vulnerable are the small regional insurers with large clusters of customers in one state or metropolitan area.
But the increasing trend of attritional losses from repeated convective storms does threaten to cut into their profit margins.
The concern for us is just the impact on earnings.
Ed Bolt, the mayor of Shawnee, Oklahoma, has seen this impact up close.
Im sure that would be a pretty consistent experience across town.
Mulready, the Oklahoma commissioner, says he had one national insurer leave his market earlier this year.
But its a safe bet that insurers will keep raising premiums as high as states will let them.
Insurers may also raise deductibles, setting a higher minimum amount of damage before insurance kicks in.
Its going to take community-scale hardening to bend that loss curve down, she told Grist.
Read next:Extreme weather cost $80 billion this year.
The true price is far higher.
That wont be easy.
Giacomelli says the nations current insurance crisis would likely ease up if more cities followed Moores lead.
I think the solutions are coming into focus, he told Grist.
Its more about can we get the will to do them.
This article originally appeared inGristathttps://grist.org/extreme-weather/home-insurance-midwest-climate-disasters/.
Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future.
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