The problem with insurance and all this devastation by hurricanes in Florida is because of the way homes are built. I grew up in Puerto Rico and lived in Florida for over 20 years. In the most of the Caribbean homes are built out of steel reinforced cement, including the roof. I lived through a bunch of Hurricanes in Puerto Rico, and when the hurricanes came, it was literally party time. You would get at least 3 days off work, paid of course, and if it hit hard it could be a week. People would fire up the barbecue and get drunk as the hurricanes came in, and then go inside the house, wait it out, and then clean up outside and get the barbecue back up and running and get more drunk. The issue there was the electric grid and the water. The utility company there sucks and you could end up without electricity for a month or more, and without water for a couple of weeks or more, but your home and your possessions were fine, unless you lived in flood areas. If you lived in a flood area, and the pumps went out, which they did as nothing is maintained there, then your personal possessions could be screwed. Most people had no homeowners insurance, I never had homeowners insurance, and no one was concerned about it. Unless you were really poor and lived in a wooden home, or a home with a wood roof, hurricanes were no big deal. At least they were never a big deal to me.
Now, Florida was a different story. If you got a Cat 3 or anything over that, and it hit you straight on, you were screwed, especially in any home built before Andrew, which was 1992. Homes in Florida, especially older ones were a joke. I had two different 2 story homes, one in Davie and one in Miami Lakes, and in both of them the first floor was CBS block, but the whole of the 2nd floor and the roof was wood, yes the second floor walls and floor were wood... The big bad wolf could have blown on those houses and the second floor and roof would have collapsed. I remember going through hurricane Charley in 2004 in the Miami Lakes house. That Hurricane came in through the west side of the state, north of Fort Myers as a Cat 3. The eye was at least 125-150 miles from us, so we mostly got a lot of rain and maybe Cat 1 force wind gusts. I can tell you that when those gusts came in the whole top of the house shook like if we were in an earthquake. My wife and her daughter were sleeping when it hit the other side of the state and I immediately woke them up and took them downstairs. We had some roof tiles fly off the home, so we had to do some repairs to the roof, and this was with Cat 1 force winds gusts. If that hurricane had hit us straight on, I can assure you that the second floor would have crumbled. That is how bad that house was, and this was not a cheap home in a cheap neighborhood. I sold that house if 2006 for $460,000...
Cement homes cost more that wood ones, but in Florida they should be mandatory for all new construction. If this had happened in 1992 after Andrew struck, there would not be this issue with insurance, unless you owned an older home. If you go to Google and look up how much more it costs to build a cement home that a wood home, it states about 10-20% more. Lets say its 20% more. If your home with CBS block and a wood roof costs $300,000 to build on your lot, and it would cost $360,000 in concrete with a concrete roof, then it is money well spent. If you pay cash for the house you can basically not have insurance, or just get insurance with no wind, which would be really cheap. I don't know where you would be at if you had to have a mortgage, but you should be able to find an insurer that would insure you for cheap as the home would not be affected by hurricanes.
