Floridians will face significant insurance surcharges some day to help generate funds needed by the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund (Cat Fund), Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, and private insurers. An even worse scenario is possible. A Category 4 or 5 hurricane in Tampa Bay or Southeast Florida probably would mean Cat Fund payouts of $28 billion, perhaps billions more than the program can timely raise. Some claims might go unpaid while Florida government scrambles to find the money.

We have some real issues to address in the system to finance losses from the all-too-frequent hurricanes striking Florida, and there was little appetite in the Legislature this year to tackle them.

The monster storm behind the doom- -and-gloom scenario with the Cat Fund running out of money could very well strike this year, although forecasters say the probability of a major storm hitting is far less than the probability of one or more moderate hurricanes striking.