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Is the world becoming uninsurable?

(charleshughsmith.substack.com)
478 points spking | 3 comments | 17 Jan 25 00:32 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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tobyhinloopen ◴[17 Jan 25 07:13 UTC] No.42734903[source]▶
American, living in area prone to natural disasters: "Is the WHOLE WORLD becoming uninsurable?"

The answer is obviously "no" since there are other parts of the world that don't live on a hurricane highway nor build houses made from firewood in an area prone to wildfires.

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chillfox ◴[17 Jan 25 14:14 UTC] No.42737687[source]▶
It’s possible that solve the hurricane problems with proper building regulations and lower the risk of huge wildfires with controlled burning. But the US as always prefers to pretend that there’s nothing to be done when other parts of the world has figured it out.

We have cyclones here similar to the hurricanes in the US and usually it just blows over some trees maybe causes a power outage. The absolute worst I have experienced was 3 days without power. I have never seen a house destroyed by a cyclone here.

As for wildfires, they do unfortunately claim a few houses most years.

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skywhopper ◴[17 Jan 25 14:20 UTC] No.42737747[source]▶
Where is “here”? Are you sure you aren’t confusing hurricanes and tornados? Hurricanes rarely destroy houses in the US, either.
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alistairSH ◴[17 Jan 25 14:51 UTC] No.42738066[source]▶
How are you making this claim? Every time a hurricane hits Florida, there are photos of entire neighborhoods devastated by wind and storm surge. How many people were permanently displaced by Katrine? Etc. Maybe many of the homes weren't technically "destroyed", but each storm brings millions or billions in damage.
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1. Retric ◴[17 Jan 25 15:29 UTC] No.42738545[source]▶
Hurricanes are common. The general case is they hit hundreds or thousands of square miles and destroy none or at worst a tiny fraction of the homes they hit.

Take Katrina from my friends and family living in New Orleans, you’ll find city streets where none of the houses go significantly damaged. They lost power long enough you don’t want to open the fridge, but most of the city was fine in the hardest hit city from one of the most expensive storms on record.

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2. jamroom ◴[17 Jan 25 15:54 UTC] No.42739048[source]▶
Over 200,000 homes were damaged or destroyed in Katrina:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstruction_of_New_Orleans

Not sure how that is a "tiny fraction" of homes. $125 billion in damage (2005).

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3. Retric ◴[17 Jan 25 16:21 UTC] No.42739582[source]▶
Moving the goalposts from destroyed to damaged gives different results.

The issue is most to the city only sustained water damage, a solid chunk of the city is above the water level and was absolutely fine. Moving outside the city most homes in Louisiana, Texas, Alabama etc don’t need to worry about flooding.