Floridians knee-deep in the state’s fourth hurricane mess in six weeks learned Tuesday they have endured the costliest series of natural disasters in U.S. history.
Tom Gallagher, the state’s chief financial officer, said Hurricane Jeanne has added $6 billion in estimated insured losses. That brings to more than $18 billion the total hurricane damage in Florida this year, beating out the previous record of $15 billion for Hurricane Andrew in 1992, he said.
When insured damage in other states is added to the total estimate, the four storms’ toll reaches $21.7 billion, according to Bob Hartwig, chief economist for the industry’s Insurance Information Institute.
Even adjusted for inflation, Andrew’s total damage reaches only $20 billion, officials said.
At least one homeowners insurance company is likely to fail because of the high number of claims from Jeanne’s damage, Gallagher said.
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When an insurance company runs out of money, the industry-funded Florida Insurance Guaranty Association usually steps in to pay outstanding claims.
Hurricane Jeanne, which slammed into Hutchinson Island near Ft. Pierce with 120 m.p.h. winds, killed at least six people in Florida. More than 1.3million homes and businesses still were without power Tuesday evening.
President Bush asked Congress late Monday for more than $7.1 billion to help Florida and other states recover. His request brings total possible funding to at least $12.2 billion.
The president will tour an orange grove Wednesday in Lake Wales, which has been hit by three of the hurricanes. It will mark his fourth damage tour in Florida this hurricane season.
State officials also noted Tuesday that domestic violence centers have begun filling up in recent weeks, just as they did after Andrew’s devastating assault on Miami-Dade County.
Gov. Jeb Bush, joined by his wife, Columba, has recorded a television public service announcement designed to help prevent disaster-related domestic violence.
“Hurricanes don’t cause domestic violence, but there is a correlation with stress,” said Kay Tavorach, who heads an abuse and rape center in storm-ravaged Punta Gorda.
Jennifer Benton, head of the non-profit agency Abuse Counseling and Treatment for Lee, Hendry and Glades Counties, said abuse calls have doubled in the weeks since the storms.
Bush said he also has requested funding to strengthen domestic violence shelters to withstand Category 3 hurricanes, such as Jeanne, so that women who have fled abusive partners don’t have to flee again when a hurricane strikes.
In coastal Brevard County, assessment teams barely made a dent in tallying up the devastation. With less than 25 percent of the area surveyed, inspectors found at least 50 homes destroyed, nearly 2,000 severely damaged and dozens more unsafe for occupancy.
As it churned north, the storm’s remnants dumped torrential rain and spawned tornadoes. Three deaths were blamed on the storms, and damage was widespread.
The storm hit Virginia especially hard, dumping a foot of rain and drowning a woman who was swept from her mobile home. Flooding closed more than 200 roads.
In western Maryland, nearly a half-foot of rain fell. Emergency workers rescued several people from vehicles stranded by high water and turned around a loaded school bus trapped by an eroding roadway.