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Location: Big Island of Hawaii & HOT BuOYS Sailing Vessel
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When former hurricane Iselle was downgraded, a rather small storm surge and high waves continued to shore. The volcanoes deflected and stole the storm's energy.
Read the reports. It is flooding not wind damage that caused most greif. Yes, a few older homes built right on the ground in known flood zones suffered flood damage. No surprise. Yes, some huge African trees that are known problems fell. No surprise.
Read my blog. Everything I wrote is more confirmed.
No one on Hawaii Island should be forced to buy hurricane coverage. How many homeowners have more repair costs to their homes than the cost to buy insurance for 10 years? Exception, those under those trees. However, the trees should have been removed.
If your home suffered wind damages, you probably already have coverage.
Do you have standard insurance with extended coverage? If your home suffered wind damage, file a claim.
Your extended coverage should cover you. You may need the backing of a Court judgment that:
1. Once a hurricane is downgraded to a storm it is not a hurricane.
2. Your extended coverage provides windstorm coverage.
3. Logically it makes zero difference if a windstorm has a name.
This battle is over what is a "named storm" and when your standard policy covers you. Get Hawaii's Insurance Commissioner on the phone.
Google terms Hurricane Sandy "named storm" insurance
That may help you too.
Philip Maise
P.S. When will the papers report that hurricane nothing, yet again, drained millions of dollars from residents?
In the article. An expert claimed: “We know the island has been hit directly in the past, and that’s what happened this time,”. A complete lie. Big Island was not hit by a hurricane. Further WHEN was the Big Island hit? 150 years ago in a mission report? How reliable was that report, and if vulnerable why hasn't it been hit in 150 years? We know as an established fact that San Diego was hit before and not a single person in San Diego is required to buy hurricane insurance.
Is this issue important to you? You it should be. What is hurricane insurance costing you each year? $5,000, $9,000 or more? If you live in a condo, it is likely a big chunk of your association fee goes to the hurricane insurance firms.
Hurricane insurance decreases the overall value of all Hawaii real estate.
That picture replayed again and again is of a poorly built hotel on Kauai without hurricane clips. Do you live in a crap old building on Kauai?
Go down to your association meeting this week and demand to know if you are paying for insurance you don't need. Demand FEMA to get the Big Island out of the overall hurricane zone.
First of all, my hurricane insurance, on a $300,000 house, costs me $350 a year. If you are paying "$5,000, $9,000 or more", then it's time you find a new carrier. Maybe you live in a multi-million dollar house if you are paying that much.
Secondly, what does your Association have to do with paying hurricane insurance? Oh, now I get it -- you must live in a condo. And perhaps the Association pays $5,000 for the whole complex? That still doesn't mean that you are paying that much yourself.
And how can you say that Iselle proved that the Big Island is NOT vulnerable? Have you been reading any of the reports out of Puna? There are people still without power and water. All across the east and south parts of the island, thousands of coffee plants and macadamia trees have been destroyed -- those are people's livelihoods.
As I mentioned in an earlier thread .... I pay only $100/year for Hurricane insurance on my oceanfront Waikiki condo (and it was optional for my condo, not required). The Association also has a policy for the bulk of the building but it is a small fraction of the overall Association budget.
It seems like a small price to provide a little piece of mind in the event of a catastrophe. But the premium is low because the likelihood of a Hurricane hitting the island is low.
A major storm (non-hurricane) is covered under my normal homeowner policy.
If you don't want hurricane insurance, pay cash for a single family home. If you expect to get a bank loan using other peoples money, expect to play by their rules. Or, move to Iowa, they don't require hurricane insurance.
Yeah all that paying for insurance must be a drag. I believe god or pele must love Hawai'i because how many times have we seen hurricanes etc be downgraded or diverted at the last minute, where if not downgraded or diverted it would of caused heavy damage. Thou i alway love to think our home is blessed and protected from harm, but how long are we going to be lucky? My suggestion keep the insurance.
According to the Star-Advertiser today, even though Iselle came ashore as a tropical storm, most hurricane policies should still provide coverage. (Paid subscription needed)
According to Zephyr Insurance Co, who has 30% of the hurricane insurance market in Hawaii (State Farm is number 2):
Hurricane insurance coverage is activated when the National Weather Service declares a hurricane watch or warning, and the coverage remains in place until 72 hours after the watch or warning is lifted. For Tropical Storm Iselle, that means hurricane policyholders in Hawaii were covered Aug. 6-11. Damage incurred outside of that period, such as from strong wind when there is no hurricane designation in effect, likely would be covered by an individual's homeowners policy. Source: Zephyr Insurance Co.
Obviously, pbmaise, you have no idea of the extent of the wind damage in the Puna area because you seem to make light of it being a "small storm". (You obviously are not on-island) It spawned a number of tornadoes - which is what caused a lot of the damage. You can see the paths of those tornadoes in the helicopter videos of the damaged areas. The weather service doesn't have a Doppler radar in this area, so they couldn't confirm it. Plus, one of the 2 radar systems was down at the time of the storm.
You claim the island was not hit by a hurricane. Technically, by the book definition, no it wasn't, but being that the wind speed decreased by 1 mph or so to officially make it a tropical storm didn't seem to make a difference in the damage it caused. Certainly doesn't matter to the people who lost homes that are not on the actual coastline.
When former hurricane Iselle was downgraded, a rather small storm surge and high waves continued to shore. The volcanoes deflected and stole the storm's energy.
Read the reports. It is flooding not wind damage that caused most greif. Yes, a few older homes built right on the ground in known flood zones suffered flood damage. No surprise. Yes, some huge African trees that are known problems fell. No surprise.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
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