Storms And Insurance Rates

WINSTON COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – When a home is damaged, it leaves owners wondering about their coverage.

Mississippi’s Insurance Commissioner says most people believe their homeowner insurance rates will spike, but that’s not always the case.

It all depends on the type of weather that caused the damage and where you live, but the Commissioner says rates are very stable in the state.

When a severe storm rolls in, the damage starts rolling out.

Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney says generally speaking, tornadoes don’t affect homeowner rates.

“Tornadoes are very narrow, so they affect a large area rate wise. Now, they affect a very small area, very destructive area, when you have a tornado, Smithville would be a good example, which happened several years ago, but they don’t affect rates that much. They do for some carriers that may be concentrated in those areas simply because they have an agent that writes a lot of people.”

Tornados might not hit rates hard, but other storms will.

Hurricane Katrina is one storm that spiked rates after it hit back in 2005.

“What really affects your rates are forest fires, hurricanes, I’m talking about on the Gulf Coast, storm surge, those are the things that affect rates throughout the state.”

Where you live can also change some things, especially if you live in a weather prone area.

“In Oklahoma, you had some spikes because they had so many tornadoes.”

When the 2014 tornado ripped through Louisville, it destroyed the Winston County Sheriff’s home.

Sheriff Jason Pugh and his family lost everything, luckily, their home was insured through Alfa.

“Everybody hates paying for their insurance. Everybody hates writing that check every month, or every three months, or every year. I use to hate writing that check. I was very glad after that storm that I had written that check to him. Those are the times that it really pays off.”

The sheriff said he had no trouble being covered after everything happened.

“My only thing I would caution people to do, we we’re just talking about before we went live, but is to reevaluate their homeowners insurance because obviously the cost of building now, may not be the amount of insurance you have.”

The sheriff suggests everyone sit down with their insurance agents and really look at their coverage and make any needed changes.