It makes no difference in delayed recovery funding
Mexico Beach, FL destruction from Hurricane Michael, October 2018
As long anticipated, weather forecasters have increased Hurricane Michael’s strength to a Category 5 storm when it made landfall last October 10th, making it the first Cat 5 hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. since Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida in 1992 ̶ and only the fourth on record. Meanwhile, Florida lawmakers are pushing ahead with disaster relief bills but have removed the final price tag for now due to budget uncertainty.
The National Hurricane Center now says Michael made landfall at Mexico Beach, Florida with 160 mph winds, an upgrade from its initial estimate of 155 mph after the storm. The Cat 5 threshold is 157 mph. The storm surge is still estimated at 15.5 feet, with total rainfall in some areas topping 6.6 inches.
The storm’s aftermath has left people without homes and jobs. Piles of debris and damaged buildings remain a common sight throughout the Panhandle. Residents awaiting more hurricane disaster relief aid from the state and federal governments took their case to the state capitol this past week. A group of 150 mostly women called “Michael’s Angels” held a rally on the steps of the Old Capitol in Tallahassee asking for more recovery assistance.
Rally by “Michael’s Angels” at the Florida Capitol, April 17, 2019
The next day, some famous Florida sports figures were at the Capitol, adding their voice to the chant for more money from the state and from Congress, which is still dickering over a $13.5 billion relief package for Florida and other disaster-impacted states. Former UF football coach Steve Spurrier joined FSU assistant coach Mikey Andrews and a few others to ask the legislature to provide help now. Spurrier says his daughter is a teacher in the impacted Bay County community of Lynn Haven.
State lawmakers last week moved forward on two bills to provide such relief. One would provide $315 million in loans to local governments for debris cleanup and infrastructure rebuilding, as well as aid for the area’s devastated timber industry. It also establishes a Hurricane Housing Recovery Program to provide incentive funding to local governments to create partnerships to preserve and build affordable housing. The other bill would provide about $5 million a year from BP Oil Spill fund monies to help inland counties. But the designated amount of $315 million was removed from the one bill due to budget uncertainty and leaves the final amount to legislative leadership during the upcoming budget negotiations (see this edition’s Bill Watch).
Large piles of debris are a common sight in Mexico Beach, FL, March 31, 2019
In the meantime, some state and federal relief via FEMA continues to trickle into the individual 14 counties impacted. Also, last week the Bay County Commission agreed to receive about $6.6 million in BP Oil Spill funding directly from Triumph Gulf Coast, the organization that administers the fund. The money will mostly be used to help cover property tax losses caused by Hurricane Michael in the county’s unincorporated areas, the cities such as Lynn Haven and Panama City, and the school district. The remaining smaller counties will split another $8.4 million from the fund.
Steel girders are all that remain of a gas station near Mexico Beach, FL, March 31, 2019
The economic advisor to Triumph Gulf Coast remarked at an economic symposium last week that unemployment in Bay and Gulf Counties is higher than surrounding counties at 5% and 6.2% respectively, due to Hurricane Michael. Rick Harper added that impacts on the Panhandle’s property taxes will be significant. Up to 42% of Calhoun County’s total taxable property saw an insurance claim filed, while $47.3 billion of total taxable value has been impacted with damage of some sort among all affected counties.
Estimated insured losses in Florida from Michael are now $6.22 billion, up from $6.15 billion the period before but on only about 150 additional claims. So these claims being settled now are getting to be the more expensive ones that took a while to fulfil. Indeed, while the overall claims closure rate is 81.5%, the most expensive lines still have a lot of open claims. The closed claims rate for Commercial Property is 47.6%; for Business Interruption, 46.7%; and for Commercial Residential, 61.8%.
LMA Newsletter of 4-22-19
