$120 billion in insurance losses in 2022

Have your personal property insurance rates gone up in the last year? What could cause those rates to skyrocket? I’ll tell you, property losses that are occurring in other areas of the nation that are experiencing disasters.

Here’s a loss tally for 2022, above the $95 billion average, hurricanes and floods generate $120 billion in insurance losses in 2022

As noted in the linked article above, “climate shocks are on the rise,” Ernst Rauch, Munich Re’s chief climate scientist, told Reuters. “We cannot directly attribute any severe weather events to climate change. But climate change has made make extreme weather events more likely.

Too bad that California, now experiencing the biggest disaster of the year so far (two weeks later) and then the Alabama tornadoes that hit recently, are two more indicators of what is happening. As a meteorologist said on NPR today, a tornado in Alabama in January isn’t all that unusual. However, typically a tornado can stay on the ground for five miles. This caused a 50-mile-long trail of damage.

The long-term outlook is more disasters, bigger disasters, disasters that are longer in duration and will cost more.

Keep in mind that I’ve already heard a story where developers are snapping up properties that were decimated by Hurricane Ian along the west coast of Florida. What will be built are more expensive houses and multi-family buildings that will be affected by a future hurricane and will cost more to repair or replace. We are exceptional!