After living in his Bradenton home for 20 years, Bryan Zoller is about to do a first.
“I’ve never made a claim before, so I’m really not sure how the process works,” he said.
Zoller’s home sits right across the street from the Manatee River.
On Thursday, Hurricane Helene brought the river inside.
“It was up about 6 inches or so,” he described from inside his kitchen.
Zoller is one of only about an estimated 20% of Florida homeowners with flood insurance.
Insurance insiders expect that number to jump, at least temporarily.
“After a storm, it always does,” said Chad LaTour, a managing partner at Flood Risk Solutions, which specializes in flood insurance. “I think that this will be kind of an eye opener. We’ve had other eye openers, like Ian and Idalia, but this one has really hit the coast very hard. I think that people will start paying more attention and actually buy flood insurance.”
LaTour believes mortgage lenders should require flood insurance, even in low-risk flood zones.