Both hurricanes and the Republican state government in Tallahassee are victimizing Florida. This one-two punch will seriously impact the state’s finances, quality of life, real estate prices, affordability, and future governance.
The reason: Governor Desantis’ MAGA Republican politics takes precedence over the life of average Floridians, even when it comes to Mother Nature.
This includes everything from climate change denial to voter suppression to banning books in public schools and tolerating all types of fraud.
It also includes Desantis’ pathological hatred of his state’s citizens. How bad is this? Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis refused to take any calls from Vice President Kamala Harris about storm recovery. A DeSantis aide told NBC News, “Kamala was trying to reach out, and we didn’t answer.”
Florida has natural and man-made problems that combine to make it a risky place to live politically and environmentally. You would think that since Florida is facing more severe storms and flooding, it would work to address the problems. But that is hard to do if you deny that climate change exists because it does not comply with your political philosophy.
But what the MAGA politicians in Florida cannot deny is the costs in dollars and human lives. Hurricane Helene caused an estimated $250 billion in damage and economic loss, according to the latest estimate from AccuWeather. According to Bloomberg, that would make it the second-most destructive storm after Katrina.
Florida’s state-backed nonprofit home insurance company, Citizens Property Insurance Corp., has access to reserves to pay claims. Still, back-to-back hurricanes will invariably cause Citizens to raise premiums, which will only add to homeowners’ financial burden.
Climate Change Should Be a Top Election Issue in the Affected Red States
Climate change affects the cost of buying and owning a house. As such, it should be a much bigger campaign issue in the Republican states (Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee) where the hurricanes have hit hardest.
The latest news for Hurricane Milton, one of the worst predicted in modern history, is that it could cause 20-foot storm surges with more damage caused on the south side of the hurricane (as of Oct. 7, 2024). Meteorologists say the heated water, as high as the mid-80s, is fueling the hurricane. The target area is central to northwest Florida (Sarasota, Ft. Myers), with the Tampa area predicted for the landfall.
As the publication, BankRate points out:
- Florida accounts for only 9% of the country’s home insurance claims but 79% of its home insurance lawsuits, many of them fraudulent.
- Because of fraudulent lawsuits and the high overall claim risk in Florida, insurance companies have experienced multiple years of net underwriting losses of over $1 billion.
- Florida has lost some form of home coverage from over 30 insurance providers in the past few years.
For these reasons, over 10 property and casualty companies offering Florida homeowners insurance have liquidated since 2017. Five of those companies liquidated in 2022 alone. Other insurance companies exited the state, and more are canceling home insurance policies, restricting policy eligibility requirements, or raising rates. This is all about risk management, and it is evident Florida is a risky state due to climate change and rising water levels.
However, many of Florida’s elected politicians do not share these explanations.
And this, along with the state’s mismanagement of other policies, including fraud prosecutions, is why Florida homeowners should not expect help from its leaders.
Here are some examples:
Florida has a huge home insurance problem. Over the past seven years, more than 10 major residential property insurance firms have left Florida after they paid out or were exposed to significant property claims, most recently after Hurricane Ian (2022). A few lesser-known insurance companies moved into the state to cherry-pick the best locations and policyholders and charge premiums based on new risk levels to fill the void.
Florida fraud. Florida is the epicenter of the nation’s leading fraudsters. Everything from insurance to identity, Medicare, Medicaid, auto, internet, and elderly scams are prevalent in Florida. The state has a lax attitude towards fraud for political and organizational reasons. Law enforcement is understaffed and cannot keep up with the scams, even if they want to be zealous.
Right-wing Florida politicians. Republican Florida politicians are the standard bearers of almost every right-wing agenda item. These include denying climate change and global warming, anti-abortion activism, book banning, cronyism, anti-union legislation, and election denial. With friends like this, who needs enemies? Led by Republican Governor and MAGA supporter Ron Desantis, the state legislature has strong relationships with the insurance industry and major polluters, such as sugar growers and other mega-farmers.
Florida’s history is also its present. Florida was the third state to join the Confederacy in 1861 (behind North Carolina and Mississippi), and its long history of backing slavery and the plantation culture. Florida is anti-union, resists higher base wage proposals, and works very closely with real estate developers statewide who typically run over local governments to get zoning variances and tax breaks. Florida is also a leader in voter suppression and anti-immigrant legislation. Since the state has no state income tax, it has attracted wealthy new residents from non-productive industries, such as hedge funds and private equity operators, seeking more tax breaks and special favors. Real estate developers also have moved to Florida to contribute to the over-congestion and the sale of expensive properties and flexible zoning regulations.
A disjointed group of residents. Florida has a broad demographic variety of residents broken down by income, race, location, political beliefs, religion, their time as permanent or part-time residents, and whether they live in gated or traditional neighborhood communities. For instance, new residents to Florida include Haitians and others from South America who are first-generation Americans with little or no knowledge of U.S. history or customs. This is common to all immigrant groups, but it can create strains at the neighborhood level. Florida also has many part-time residents, especially in south Florida on the east and Gulf sides. Part-time residents are often more politically liberal than full-time residents but may not be Florida voters. As such, they are not very interested in local political and environmental developments.
Florida is Hurricane Alley. Even before global warming, Florida has suffered some of the nation’s worst hurricanes. This list of hurricanes shows the geographic and damage ranges of hurricanes that run from the Florida Keys to the Panhandle. Hurricanes are a fact of life in Florida. Their course is set by nature, and while modern science has made their tact more predictable, their destructive force cannot be changed. 
Project 2025 wants to cut FEMA and NOAA Budgets. It’s important to note that the Republican’s Project 2025 calls for either downsizing or cutting the budgets for NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and FEMA. Project 2025 calls NOAA a primary component “of the climate change alarm industry” and says it “should be broken up and downsized.” This is fundamental science denial being made for a political purpose. Floridians will suffer as a result of these Medieval policies.
Climate change should become a more significant election issue. Climate change and disaster management should be more significant campaign issues in the states affected by this season’s hurricanes. The bad news is that the locations where hurricane damage was most severe are MAGA Republican districts. Since MAGA Republicans deny the fact of global warming, these Republicans are unprepared or unwilling to admit the scientific facts. This prevents them from correcting the problem. You cannot fix a problem if you don’t know its origins.
The hurricanes are Mother Nature’s wrath on climate deniers and MAGA liars. The devastating power of the last two hurricanes and their destructive paths through mainly MGA Republican states may be Mother Nature’s wrath on their climate denial and willingness to be fooled by MAGA leaders. Since you cannot fool Mother Nature, the hurricanes are proof that global warming (manifesting itself in droughts, wildfires, heatwaves, flooding, hurricanes, famines, ocean pollution, record rainfalls, and the resurgence of diseases) is accurate and that the MAGA deniers are only opportunists feasting on their follower’s stupidity or self-delusions. As Project 2025 boldly states, the Republicans want to cut the budgets of national weather and disaster assistance agencies. To foster this, Trump is promoting anti-FEMA lies, such as saying FEMA money is being spent on immigrants rather than hurricane victim relief. This sick lie is deliberate and meant to foster hate towards federal agencies. So, consider the message of the back-to-back hurricanes to MAGA Republicans: Trump and Vance can fool you, but you cannot fool Mother Nature.
A Florida Disaster Case Study
The impact of the Florida hurricane on the ground was devastating. As this video shows, few people can comprehend the power of moving water. How else do boats get pushed a block inland to land on someone’s front lawn?
As for homeowners who have sustained major water flood damage, the insurance companies consider these hoes as total losses. The homeowner then sells the home for the price of the land only. The house is considered debris to be demolished and put into a dump truck.
In this video, 20,000 people in the St. Petersburg suffered hurricane damage. In the Shore Acres neighborhood in St. Petersburg, homes are being sold for “lot value,” or the price of the land alone, because FEMA restricts the amount of money paid to rebuild homes in a disaster area. Even then, the newly constructed home must meet FEMA codes, and that expense can exceed the amount of money the homeowner has for the remodeling. Left in this situation, the homeowner sells the house for the cost of the land alone.
The Perfect Storm for Florida Homeowners
Florida’s current political and environmental situation is the perfect storm for disaster. The state is ill-prepared and not predisposed to help its residents. Florida’s political leadership is a reactionary clique that denies global warming and is pursuing the MAGA agenda. The legislature will become more reactionary if Trump loses the 2024 election, while Florida remains a red state.
The next big news item will be how much insurance companies in Florida pay—or do not pay—to homeowners and to what extent fraud is allowed in Florida.
This does not bode well for the underwater Sunshine State homeowners, who are facing the devastation of global warming and a scientific event their elected leaders refuse to admit is happening.
