"I Think The Fat Lady Has Sung!"

This being the last day in November, it's official: the 2007 hurricane season ends this date at midnight. We've had it easy again this season, so a collective sigh of relief is in order.

This marks the second season in a row when major storm predictions didn't measure up with initial expectations. No one is complaining. But do these two seasons of reprieve cut any slack with the insurance companies? Hardly. The original prognostication released by Colorado State University's, Dr. William Gray, anticipated 17 named storms, 9 of which would develop into hurricanes, and of that nine, five would be classified as "major." In actuality, the season produced 10 tropical storms, two of which were subtropical, and six blossomed into hurricane strength. As Mother Nature would have it, the worst of the hurricanes steered well away from our continental boarders. Nevertheless, the insurance carriers who issue home owners policies considered this season to be yet another banner year in justifying why they should cancel dozens of existing policies and raise the premiums significantly on those policies still in effect. It appears that reality has very little to do with actuarial calculations: the perception of a potentially devastating hurricane season holds more validity than the reality that it did not.

There is a heated debate on-going among weather prognosticators as to whether or not many of the tropical waves should be elevated to tropical storm status, so minimally organized are each, lacking in wind speed and lower barometric pressures. It is being suggested that the threshold for measuring tropical storms needs to be revised in order to be more precise in elevating marginal depressions to tropical storm status. The insurance industry is lobbying strenuously that such reclassification criteria be shelved so as to not minimize their reasoning that minimums are equal to maximums. The more named storms the more reason the insurance companies have to cry potential loss and raise policy rates. It's all just a game and it is played for money...the consumers money. It is played to the benefit of the insurance companies profits and to appease their stock holders.

When we purchased our home 23 years ago our home owner's insurance coverage yearly was a little over $600. We have been "dropped" twice and are now insured by the State of Florida, playing an annual premium of over $3,000. Not once in that 23 years have I ever submitted a claim on my policy. But because I choose to live in a state prone to hurricane landfalls, I am considered a high risk even though our home is miles away from the coastline. Guilt by association.

I am most certainly glad that the 2007 hurricane season has come to a close. For a while now we may breath easier. That is until January rolls around and we receive the renewal notice for our home owner's policy. I don't know which is more discouraging...a category 5 hurricane bearing down on our coastline or a letter from our insurance carrier. I despise and fear both.