Hurricane Ready
April 1st, 2016 by flanewsYou may remember the active hurricane seasons from a decade ago, and a special assessment Florida homeowners were hit with to pay for the damage. As Matt Galka tells us, if a major storm hits soon…Florida’s got the money to pay.
It’s two months before hurricane season officially begins – but at the Capital Area Red Cross – the season doesn’t matter.
“What we do on a year round basis is recruit volunteers and train those volunteers so that they’re ready,” said CEO Sharon Tyler.
Florida’s been blessed with a decade long hurricane drought. But Sharon Tyler says that can be a blessing and a curse for residents.
“It’s really important to stay prepared, we have a tendency to stay complacent since we haven’t had a storm in a long time, and we don’t stay on our toes and have everything the way it needs to be,” she said.
That drought has brought some good news for the state though. Florida’s Catastrophe Fund – used to reimburse insurance companies after catastrophic event– is the strongest its ever been
State officials say if Hurricane Andrew were to hit again tomorrow, we can cover it.
“We’ve been fortunate, the wind has not blown and we haven’t had a major land falling storm in a decade,” said state Board of Administration Executive Director Ash Williams.
With nearly 17 billion dollars on hand – state officials are confident they can handle a big one.
“We’re good, for one event, yes, if you had multiple hurricanes Andrew, you would be less good,” said Williams.
Florida homeowners had to pay special assessments to help pay for the 2004 and 2005 storm seasons when the state was peppered with 8 hurricanes.
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