MINNESOTA, USA — The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says so far this year, the U.S. has seen 15 natural disasters that caused at least $1 billion in damages — and hat number doesn't even include the wildfires in Maui or Hurricane Hilary.
As the United States is on track to break the record for billion-dollar disasters this year, some may think this is a problem that won’t affect the Midwest because we don’t have hurricanes or earthquakes.
And for many years, insurance companies felt the same way.
"You were able to look at places like Minnesota and the rest of the Midwest and say, 'Hey, that's a pretty safe bet,'" Minnesota Insurance Federation President Aaron Cocking says. "That has changed dramatically."
For many years, the Midwest was considered a low-risk region of the United States, but Cocking says that changed about 25 years ago.
"In 1998, we had storms hit and the storms totaled more than $1.5 billion in 1998, which was more than the 40 previous years combined. Since 1998, we have just seen an avalanche of these storms that have come through,” Cocking says.
It's true the Midwest doesn't see hurricanes or earthquakes, and the region doesn’t typically see massive wildfires that burn thousands of acres of land, but the region does see a lot of tornadoes and hail.
"Hail is the most devastating thing that most insurance companies face,” Cocking says.
According to the Insurance Information Institute, Minnesota ranked third in the nation for hail storms last year with 387 of them.
Minnesota was also fourth for tornadoes with 77.
Those high rankings come with a cost.
According to Bankrate, Minnesota ranks 11th in the nation for homeowners insurance with an average cost of nearly $1,930.
When you take into consideration household income and how much people make per year, Bankrate says Minnesota actually ranks even higher with the fourth-highest premiums in the country.
"Storms that normally would have occurred every 100 years, or every 50 years, are now occurring every 25 years or every 10 years. Now that those storms have become more frequent, the price to cover the losses from those storms has to be accounted for."
Cocking says these two most recent natural disasters, Hurricane Hilary in California and the wildfires in Maui, will have some impact, but not as much as you might think.
"The hurricane damage in California is looking like it's going to come in somewhere between 2 and 3 billion in insured losses,” Cocking explains.
By comparison, he says Hurricane Ian last year caused more than $100 billion in damage.
Cocking says the good news is that it's possible to save some money by shopping around and increasing your deductible.
"If you're willing to take on a higher deductible, that makes a big difference in bringing down some of the costs of the premium you can pay."
There may also be an additional way to save in the near future.
Insurance experts say the industry is now working with builders and various companies to create building materials that can stand up against natural disasters and not get damaged.
Experts say insurance companies could decide to give homeowners incentives to use this building material by offering customers various discounts and rebates.
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