As claims continue to be filed, estimated insured losses from Hurricane Idalia reached $97.7 million on Tuesday, according to data posted on the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation website.
The data was based on 12,308 claims reported by insurers.
The largest number of claims, 8,533, involved residential property, while other types included such things as auto damage.
The data said 531 claims had been closed with payments, while 632 had been closed without payments.
The Category 3 Idalia made landfall Wednesday in the Keaton Beach area of Taylor County before crossing parts of North Florida into Georgia.
Citizens Property Insurance adds more policies
Meanwhile, the state’s Citizens Property Insurance Corp. added more than 9,000 policies last week as it moves closer to 1.4 million total policies.
Citizens had 1,379,289 policies as of Friday, up from 1,370,175 policies a week earlier and 1,371,324 policies two weeks earlier.
Citizens, which was created as an insurer of last resort, has seen a flood of new customers over the past three years as private insurers have shed policies and raised rates because of financial problems.
For example, Citizens had 499,056 policies on Aug. 31, 2020; 687,079 policies on Aug. 31, 2021; and 1,026,829 policies on Aug. 31, 2022, according to its website.
Proposals allow private insurers to assume policies from Citizens
But insurance regulators this year have approved a series of proposals to allow private insurers to assume policies from Citizens.
That included Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky signing orders Friday that would allow seven insurers to assume as many as 202,000 policies from Citizens in November.
State leaders have long sought to move policies from Citizens into the private market, at least in part because of financial risks if Florida gets hit by a major hurricane or multiple hurricanes.
©2023 The News Service of Florida
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