Just a quick Hurricane Milton update this morning …
It turns out the exact ‘eye’ of the hurricane passed directly over our vacation town of Celebration FL as the storm moved across the state from west-to-east last night.
We watched the news coverage on an Orlando TV station as the storm produced 75 mph winds – which then dropped to near zero – and back up to 75 mph again.
Happily, the town was quite resilient. No flooding. No power outages. No lost internet connection. Just some trees down in the wind. A neighbor sent photos of our unit – which was strong & secure.
Speaking of coverage … my wife asked what would have happened with our insurance if a branch came through a window and caused damage to our floors & furnishings? I didn’t know what coverage we exactly had, so I looked up our HO6 insurance policy (Edison Insurance) and noted that it does have “Hurricane Coverage” expressly spelled out. It’s listed as a $300 line item in the premiums.
Our total coverage premium – including the hurricane rider – is $1,350 a year. That’s for $150K dwelling coverage and $50K personal property. There’s a $1K deductible. To put that in perspective, it is about 4x what we pay for the HO6 coverage we have on the townhouse we own in Minnesota. The the townhouse is about 20% bigger and has a nicer finish quality.
The good news is that we didn’t suffer any losses like the people on the Gulf Coast did – or the people in nearby Orlando who have massive flooding. We also learned a lot about how these storms ‘work’ and how people respond. Hopefully, we won’t see another one for quite a while.
Image: FOX 35 Orlando
MrFireStation 
Glad to hear you came out okay.
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Celebration has Disney roots back when the company was known for excellence in engineering and being real innovators. Part of the engineering of Disney World and surrounding area was having an American Military Engineer, William Everett Porter. His bio included serving as Chief for logistics for the Normandy Campaign during WW II, numerous flood control projects throughout the USA, and Governor of the Panama Canal Zone. HIs expertise managing the Panama Canal Zone was utilized for the building of Disney World and the surrounding area. The Panama Canal required controlling mosquitos in a disease stricken swamp. All of the water features have some movement such as a fountain that stops mosquitos from breeding. Flood control of a swamp is also a big part of both Panama and Disney World and its surrounding area.
One other tidbit about Mr. Potter. He was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin in 1905. He would have been well aware of the Peshtigo Fire that hit Northern Wisconsin on October 8, 1871. This fire killed between an estimated 1,500 and 2,500 persons and went right through Oshkosh. Memory of this would most likely have impacted his family and neighbors and would act as a real incentive to avoid natural disasters.
As a point of comparison I compared your condo’s Fire and Hurricane Insurance cost against my home’s Fire and Earthquake Insurance cost. I divided the insurance cost by the replacement value being insured. My cost worked out to .51%, while yours was .90%, so yes it is expensive. If I had stayed with State Farm across the board, my cost would have gone up to 1.26%. Because I was highly incentivized, I shopped all my insurance this year and had two surprise findings. State Farm seems to have the best auto insurance rates. Their Umbrella Policy rates also almost doubled this year. I was pleasantly surprised to find that umbrella policies are now offered very similar to term life insurance at PersonalUmbrella.com. I was able to get my Umbrella Policy slightly under last year’s rate. This year’s insurance shopping allowed me to avoid $13,000 in increases and come in at almost the exact same cost as the previous year. Take the time to shop and better understand your insurance! Fight back against inflation!
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One slight correction, the Peshtigo Fire went through Oconto (I always mix up Oconto and Oshkosh) jumped 20 miles across Green Bay onto the Door Peninsula. Still, close enough to Oshkosh.
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I’ve heard of the Peshtigo Fire. In terms of lives lost, it was bigger than the Great Chicago Fire and the famous London Fire. Horrible thing.
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Yes – I’ve heard of Potter. One of the boats that takes visitors from the Transportation & Ticket Center to the Magic Kingdom is named for him. Taming the swamps for Walt Disney World was a big & ongoing project.
Potter was a EVP with the 1964 World’s Fair in NYC. It was there that he started working with Walt, who had his eyes on Florida for a new Disneyland. Disney had 4 pavillions at the World’s Fair.
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