The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation ("FOIR") has updated its Hurricane Michael claims figures and now estimates total insured losses in Florida from the Category 5 hurricane at close to $7.5 billion.
As of Friday, October 25, 2019, the FOIR reported that nearly 150,000 claims – including close to 100,000 residential property claims – have been filed with insurers.
The vast majority of the claims relate to residential property, and 88.5 percent of those claims have been closed.
Since Hurricane Michael made landfall as a Category 5 hurricane on the Florida Panhandle on Wednesday, October 10, 2018, the FOIR has conducted 44 distinct Hurricane Michael data calls, including:
- Daily data calls beginning October 12, 2018 through November 9, 2018;
- Weekly data calls beginning November 16, 2018 through February 22, 2019;
- Bimonthly data calls from March 15, 2019 to April 26, 2019; and
- Monthly calls from May 31, 2019 through October 26, 2019.
The FOIR reported the following data as of October 25, 2019.
| Lines of Business | Number of Claims Reported | Claims Closed with Payment | Claims Closed without Payment | Number of Open Claims | Percent of Claims Closed |
| Residential Property | 99,554 | 74,363 | 13,790 | 11,401 | 88.5% |
| Homeowners | 73,222 | 53,567 | 10,528 | 9,127 | 87.5% |
| Dwelling | 15,993 | 11,950 | 2,444 | 1,599 | 90.0% |
| Mobile Homeowners | 9,423 | 8,307 | 657 | 459 | 95.1% |
| Commercial Residential | 916 | 539 | 161 | 216 | 76.4% |
| Commercial Property | 11,152 | 5,042 | 2,594 | 3,516 | 68.5% |
| Private Flood | 242 | 169 | 53 | 20 | 91.7% |
| Business Interruption | 872 | 351 | 250 | 271 | 68.9% |
| Other Lines of Business* | 37,953 | 32,975 | 4,293 | 685 | 98.2% |
| TOTALS | 149,773 | 112,900 | 20,980 | 15,893 | 89.4% |
Victoria Spears
Victoria Prussen Spears is senior vice president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and Brooklyn Law School, Ms. Spears was an attorney at a leading New York City law firm before joining Meyerowitz Communications. She may be contacted at [email protected].