You could see an increase in your home insurance premiums

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)- Severe storms can leave behind a lasting impression. And it’s not just the immediate pain of the damage. There is often a pain in the pocketbook when your next insurance premium comes due.

When Mother Nature strikes, the first thing on many people minds is dealing with the damage to their homes and property.

But what they might not realize is severe weather can strike twice.

The second hit -your insurance.

“You can have what you call a catastrophic loss, and that’s when like in this last pair of storms that we had come through, I think we had about 40 claims somewhere around there and when a catastrophic loss like that happens you can see rates rise,” said insurance producer Chris Rhett.

And this isn’t anything new.

“2011 tornadoes, they took a drastic increase. After that in Alabama and Mississippi definitely the impact of weather can affect premiums,” said Rhett.

Even if you aren’t directly impacted by the disaster, your rates can still increase.

But it may be months before you find out.

“We don’t know if there’s going to be a rate increase until we see a renewal you know we can expect it if we see a lot of storms we can expect it. The carriers are the actual ones they enforce they enforce the increase,” said Rhett.

It comes down to your carrier. If they get hit hard by multiple claims, increases can be expected.

“Say you got a company like Travelers. Travelers would if they got hit hard in one area, Travelers would, therefore, take a rate increase, send that to your renewal, from there we would have to explain. We have the ability to shop or continue with that carrier,” said Rhett.

Rhett says if there is an extended period where the weather isn’t a problem rates can actually decrease.