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Hurricane Wilma

Already pinched, insurer watches storm, waits

By Times Staff Writer
Published October 22, 2005

Perhaps no one is watching Hurricane Wilma more warily than Citizens Property Insurance Corp., Florida's insurer of last resort.

Since midweek, most projections of the hurricane's path put it straight across South Florida, where Citizens writes 68 percent of its windstorm policies and 50 percent of its homeowner and condominium policies. Citizens' chairman G. Bruce Douglas has warned Wilma's impact could be "catastrophic" for Florida's insurance market.

But it would be particularly bad for Citizens, created by the Legislature to write insurance wherever the private market won't. The result: Citizens writes nearly 100 percent of windstorm policies along the coast of Monroe and Miami-Dade counties and significant percentages in other South Florida coastal counties.

Why should you care? A significant strike by Wilma would almost certainly tax Citizens' limited reserves, forcing yet another statewide assessment on all property insurance policyholders like the $515-million assessment levied for the 2004 hurricanes.

No one is predicting yet, however, how high another assessment could be.

[Last modified October 22, 2005, 01:14:12]