Hurricane Milton

Mad Eyed Screamer said:
My mobile home, insurance is S1000 a month. Needless to say I don't have insurance.
I paid $32,000 cash for it 3 and a half years ago which was 42 months ago. Do the maths.
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We were looking at buying a one-bedroom apartment in Florida a couple of years ago, prices seemed really good and as you know we love cruise ships and there are loads in Florida... what put us off was the cost of management fees and especially insurance... it was astronomical.
Planning on going there in April and doing some cruises but we will just use Airbnb inbetween them.
 
Mad Eyed Screamer said:
My mobile home, insurance is S1000 a month. Needless to say I don't have insurance.
I paid $32,000 cash for it 3 and a half years ago which was 42 months ago. Do the maths.
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Insurance is for losses you cannot sustain. That said, YOU are “Florida Man” and I claim my 5 kilos of meth!
 
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Bill Walker said:
We were looking at buying a one-bedroom apartment in Florida a couple of years ago, prices seemed really good and as you know we love cruise ships and there are loads in Florida... what put us off was the cost of management fees and especially insurance... it was astronomical.
Planning on going there in April and doing some cruises but we will just use Airbnb inbetween them.
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The HOAs everywhere are getting ridiculous, and insurance is out of control.

What cost $10,000 to rebuild pre-pandemic now costs $25,000, but the insurance premiums didn’t reflect the added claims losses. Insurance companies aren’t charities, so not only are they making sure they don’t get caught out again, but they’ve got losses to overcome!

Throw in the 40-50 year old construction of the wave of 70s & 80s homes made out of spit and Kleenex, and the ridiculous mark-ups on homes and a $20,000 build shitbox that now sells for $200,000 will be $300,000 to rebuild!
 
I'm watching a live report on sky news from Tampa in Florida and although it's very windy with torrential rain the reporter is standing there chatting comfortably. There is no struggling to stay on his feet. Or course other areas may be hit harder and I guess a surge could cause flooding. He looks fine there though.
 
Bill Walker said:
We were looking at buying a one-bedroom apartment in Florida a couple of years ago, prices seemed really good and as you know we love cruise ships and there are loads in Florida... what put us off was the cost of management fees and especially insurance... it was astronomical.
Planning on going there in April and doing some cruises but we will just use Airbnb inbetween them.
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HOA fees and insurance costs are the killer.
 
paulchapo said:
That's crazy but I can understand why. I'm guessing nobody has insurance there?
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The vast majority of mobile home parks in Florida are 55+ communities, very few cater for all ages.
When I moved in aged 58, I was 'the young buck'' (Rooney would love it here) and lowered the average age down considerably. The majority are living week to week on their social security pension and insurance is the last thing on their mind.
I've been texting my neighbour Joan, aged 76 who stayed put with her disabled husband - where would they go and how would they get there? She has a golf cart that gets her to the doctors and the supermarket up the road. She said she lost power but the mobile home is still standing firm.
 
paulchapo said:
I'm watching a live report on sky news from Tampa in Florida and although it's very windy with torrential rain the reporter is standing there chatting comfortably. There is no struggling to stay on his feet. Or course other areas may be hit harder and I guess a surge could cause flooding. He looks fine there though.
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I'm flicking through channels between local NBC and CBS and they are either using the same camera or standing in the same area in Tampa which is under cover (think they are on the ground floor of a multi story car park.)
 
Trevor Morley's Tache said:
HOA fees and insurance costs are the killer.
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Just had to Google what HOA means.. it's the same as we have here but they're called body corporate committees.
We just sold our apartment as weekly fees were heading up to two hundred dollars a week mainly because of insurance costs.
The apartment made us a tidy profit in the five years we lived there though.
 
Mad Eyed Screamer said:
The vast majority of mobile home parks in Florida are 55+ communities, very few cater for all ages.
When I moved in aged 58, I was 'the young buck'' (Rooney would love it here) and lowered the average age down considerably. The majority are living week to week on their social security pension and insurance is the last thing on their mind.
I've been texting my neighbour Joan, aged 76 who stayed put with her disabled husband - where would they go and how would they get there? She has a golf cart that gets her to the doctors and the supermarket up the road. She said she lost power but the mobile home is still standing firm.
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Hopefully they will be okay. What actually happens to the people you described with no insurance and just a basic income if their mobile homes get flattened? Homeless I guess.
With the frequency these events occur in that area you'd think they would have a decent contingency plan rather than move out until it passes.
 
On the subject of hurricane's in my time at sea I sailed in quite a few. I've posted a picture of a particularly bad one I was in around 1979/80. We were heading back to the UK across the north Atlantic from Norfolk Virginia. At 3:30 am a freak wave smashed the ship and the inside accomodation was under a good three feet of water. We were on emergency stations but thankfully the experience of our captain ( 35 years at sea) got us through. It is as taken with a Polaroid camera so not great quality.

I was also working on the English channel the night of the infamous Michael Fish hurricane in 1987. When I eventually finished my shift 5 hours later than it should have ended Dover was like a war zone and my digs lost power about 10 minutes after I got in.
 

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paulchapo said:
Hopefully they will be okay. What actually happens to the people you described with no insurance and just a basic income if their mobile homes get flattened? Homeless I guess.
With the frequency these events occur in that area you'd think they would have a decent contingency plan rather than move out until it passes.
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My home was built in 1987 so it’s survived a few storms so maybe this one too? Though none have been as big and direct as this.
This is my 4th in the 9 years in Florida and the other 3 barely touched Tampa but obviously caught the outer waves from it.
Locals always feared that Tampa was due a big one as it had been avoiding one for so long…..
 
Mad Eyed Screamer said:
My home was built in 1987 so it’s survived a few storms so maybe this one too? Though none have been as big and direct as this.
This is my 4th in the 9 years in Florida and the other 3 barely touched Tampa but obviously caught the outer waves from it.
Locals always feared that Tampa was due a big one as it had been avoiding one for so long…..
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Thanks for the reply, I hope you all come through it safely and with as little damage as possible.

I was in Tampa in the early eighties and actually went to a football game. The Tampa Bay Rowdies v the Jacksonville Teamen. It ended up a draw and Archie Gemmill played for the Teamen.
 
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