TALLAHASSEE, Florida — The long-dreaded big one is about to reach Florida. And the expected billions in damage from Hurricane Milton could also wreck the state’s still fragile insurance market and potentially disrupt the state’s economy.
The storm-prone state has been reeling from insurance problems for years, including spiking premiums for homeowners and insurers retreating completely from the state. Despite some fixes that lawmakers and the industry hoped will stabilize the market, a major storm hitting a heavily populated area — like Milton is projected to do — could erase any progress and send the market into a tailspin.
“This is the worst-case scenario,” said former state Sen. Jeff Brandes, who is now the president of the Florida Policy Project, a research institute focused on issues like insurance and housing.
Milton is a powerful Category 4 storm expected to slam into the state’s west coast sometime on Wednesday evening or early Thursday. It is expected to bring with it massive storm surge and intense wind speeds into a heavily populated area of the state along the Gulf Coast. Millions in the area were told to evacuate ahead of what’s looking like a catastrophic hurricane.
