When Hurricane Sally struck coastal Alabama in 2020, many residents saw the roofs torn from their homes or damaged by the high winds.“Every house around had blue tarps on it, except for mine,” said the resident of Orange Beach, a small city on the Gulf Coast.
“A lot of these insurance companies were not going into coastal areas, simply from a risk standpoint,” said Travis Taylor, acting director of the Strengthen Alabama Homes program, which is overseen by the state Department of Insurance. “But now as people have gotten Fortified roofs, the insurance companies are hounding them.”
Fortified roofs meet a standard developed by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, an industry nonprofit that serves as a leader in safety research. Some local governments have adopted building codes based on that standard, and Alabama’s program uses the institute’s qualification. Powell’s research has found that Fortified homes sell for 7% more on average, and owners are far more likely to secure insurance coverage from major carriers. Alabama also mandates that insurers provide discounts of 20% to 60% on wind coverage for Fortified homes, depending on the level of the upgrades., drop high-risk customers or raise premiums drastically.
This year, Louisiana lawmakers passed a measure that will task state regulators with calculating the insurance discounts that Fortified homeowners should receive.While hurricanes on the coast have gotten more attention, Midwestern states have been hit with severe hailstorms, windstorms and tornadoes that have driven up insurance costs. Minnesota lawmakers established a home resilience grant program last year to deal with the crisis.