When will they pay? Floridians say state not holding insurance carriers accountable post-Ian [View all]

It started in the master bedroom.

The night Hurricane Ian threw itself against the edges of Southwest Florida, battering homes and sheeting down rain, its 145-mile-per-hour winds lifted the roof from the home where Sara Alvarez and her husband, Justin Jackson, sheltered.

Rain poured in, soaking belongings, walls and floors. As the winds battered the townhouse for hours, it leaked in wherever roof met wall. By the time the storm had passed, the ground floor was covered in 2 inches of water despite Jackson's attempts to suck it from the ceiling with a Shop-Vac.

Mold soon grew in the paths water had carved in the walls. It plagued Alvarez, who works from home, with daylong headaches and flu-like symptoms.

But that was just the start.

After a contractor tore out the couple's moldy walls, the insurance company for the homeowner's association at Phase VI of Parkwoods in south Fort Myers refused to pay the $2 million in emergency repairs for their and 67 other townhouses in the community. It left dozens of families living in half-gutted homes.

But Heritage Casualty & Property Insurance is far from the only insurance company leaving Floridians in the lurch, state records show.

https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/state/2023/08/16/florida-insurance-crisis-low-payouts-claim-denials-hurricane-ian-recovery/70277542007/

The DeSantis administration is not interested in dealing effectively with Florida's insurance problem. The insurance industry is one of the biggest campaign contributors to Florida's Republican Party candidates and officeholders.