From the WBRC (Fox):

Watching what’s happening to homeowners in the path of Hurricanes Irma and Harvey may have you taking a second look at what kind of coverage you’ve got on your home or cars.

A University of Alabama researcher explains insurance companies will get a sea of people looking for homeowner and flood insurance after these recent storms.

Then a few years later there will be a decline in an insurance again, but if you find the best rates, you can avoid dropping your coverage altogether.

Executive director Lars Powell works in the Alabama Center for insurance information and research.

“We are doing research to understand how the market works so how much can you save by shopping around,” said Powell.

According to Powell a whole lot, they found many people in Mobile and Baldwin Counties could save half on their insurance premium.

“Most of what happens is, of course, bad we never want to have these wind events because they don’t help anybody,” said Powell.

What about the impact disasters have on insurance?

“I don’t expect to see any big fluctuations in Texas and certainly not in Alabama, Alabama has largely adequate wind rates from what science knows today,” said Powell.

“You never know what’s going to happen and most people don’t have well I don’t have $80,000 laying around,” said Powell.

Resident Cathy Martin said finding a good insurance agent paid off, just in time.

“With the Katrina and the tornado, I could’ve never repaired what I needed to repair without the insurance,” said Martin.

When searching for insurance ask, do I have sewer and water coverage? Do I have a flood policy? Powell said asking the right questions could get you the right plan.

“The government entity that has paid out after this storm probably more than $40 billion in claims that they’ve taken in premiums that’s a pretty good deal to me,” said Powell.

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