How climate change could cause a home insurance meltdown – By Michael Copley, Rebecca Hersher & Nathan Rott (NPR) / July 22, 2023
Big wildfires had started burning more often in California, creeping closer to Beth Pratt’s home near Yosemite National Park. So Pratt did what homeowners in fire-prone areas are supposed to do: She added a metal roof, traded wood decking for laminate, installed a water tank and a fire hose, and cleared vegetation near her house. Pratt says she emptied her savings to make her “home for life” fire resistant.
But it didn’t matter. Earlier this month, Pratt got a letter from Allstate, her home insurer of 31 years, saying her coverage was being dropped because of the threat from wildfires. “I get companies need to make money. I have no problem with that. Increase my rate,” Pratt says. “But to just drop people — you know, it’s scary. It leaves us feeling extremely vulnerable.”
Pratt, like hundreds of thousands of other homeowners in California, now faces the state’s growing climate threats with a weaker safety net. Over the past two years, several big insurers, including Allstate and State Farm, have scaled back their home insurance businesses in California to avoid paying billions for wildfire damage, or have halted sales of new policies altogether. Homeowners like Pratt are finding out that their longtime insurers have decided not to renew coverage.
CONTINUE > https://www.npr.org/2023/07/22/1186540332/how-climate-change-could-cause-a-home-insurance-meltdown
