The weather and your roof

Shannon Bohrer

(11/2021) Are weather-related disasters occurring more frequently? According to the experts, they are, and with stronger winds, more rain, and more heat, resulting in greater damages to property. What happens if your roof is damaged in a storm, and you cannot afford to make the repairs. If the repairs are not made, the next storm will damage more than the roof. The conundrum is that if you cannot afford the repairs, you also cannot afford – not to fix the roof.

The recent Hurricane Ida is a good example. The damage spanned numerous states, resulting in the loss of homes, electricity, flooding, and loss of life, that of course, is typical with hurricanes. However, with this hurricane, the damages spanned from Louisiana to New England. The storm came ashore in Louisiana, yet 29 people died in New Jersey 16 people died in New York. The disaster was not localized; if anything, the storm demonstrated how un-prepared the county is for larger hurricanes that are predicted to become the norm. One month after the hurricane hit, 40,000 people in Mississippi and 17,000 people in Louisiana were still without electricity. The estimated cost from this one event could exceed 95 billion dollars. If the estimates are correct, it would be the 7th costliest hurricane in the last twenty years.

The North Carolina Institute for Climate Studies "found that the three highest-volume rainfall events in the U.S. in the last 70 years have occurred since 2016: Hurricane Harvey in Texas/Louisiana in 2017, Hurricane Florence in North Carolina in 2018, and a March 2016 storm in Louisiana."

When hurricane Ida hit New York, one couple said this was the third time they experienced extensive damage to their home from flooding. Thankfully they had flood insurance; however, the couple said they are getting older, and they are getting tired of rebuilding. When being interviewed on the evening news, the reporter asks, "are you going to move?" The wife responded they would like to sell, but nobody will buy the home. Many people are in that position, they can’t sell, and they cannot afford to walk away.

Of course, natural disasters are not limited to hurricanes. On the opposite coast, we seem to have a pandemic of wildfires. Close to 44,000 fires have damaged and destroyed over 5 million acres, and many fires continue to burn. Since several fires are still burning, it is unknown if 2021 can make the top five years for acreage burned. Since 1960 the top five years for wildfires occurred between 2006 and 2020. The top fire was in 2015 when 10.13 million acres burned. Maybe it should not be surprising that the top five fire seasons were all in the last 15 years. Of course, the fire season has now been extended. It is predicted this year that some fires will eventually go out - when enough snowfalls.

While flood insurance is optional and should cover flood damage, providing you have it, fires insurance is mandatory with a mortgage. So, if someone has a mortgage, they have fire insurance. Well, they are supposed to have the insurance. The problem is that fire insurance premiums in California have gone up and continues to climb. In 2017, it was reported that, in some fire-prone areas, the fire insurance was around $800 a year, and in some areas, it climbed to over $5,000 a year.

As insurance rates climb, more and more people in fire-prone areas are stuck, not unlike the people that live in flood-prone areas. In 2021, in some fire-prone areas, fire insurance quotes range from $8,000 to as high as $19,000. People in this situation that cannot pay the premiums are stuck unless they can sell.

The fire insurance problems continued to grow when it was recently reported that insurers would not renew any fire insurance policies for thousands of homes. I cannot fathom the idea of not being able to ensure my home or how the mortgage companies will resolve this issue. If you have no mortgage, then you are not required to have fire insurance; however, if you want to sell, the new buyers might want to have the insurance. In an odd way, the insurance needed to sell a home is not a problem. Who would buy a home in a state known to have wildfires, where you can't get fire insurance?

However, all may not be lost. If you live in a home where you cannot obtain insurance, and you don't want to sell it, and it does not burn down, everything is OK, at least temporarily. But, for most people, living in a fire-prone area and not being able to purchase fire insurance is not unlike people that expect to lose their roof in a future storm. In both cases, you can see a disaster coming; you don't have a date.

We often hear about the changing weather and how the rising global temperatures have changed our weather. The experts have also said that while the weather is changing, what we are experiencing is only the beginning of the change. July 2021 was the hottest month on record globally, so it was the hottest month on record - so far.

This past summer, temperatures in Portland went to 115 degrees Fahrenheit. While 115 seems high, in British Columbia, the temperature went to 121 degrees. Many people might think extremes happen, but what if this is only the beginning and these temperatures become the norm. The experts tell us that Global warming is real, the earth is getting hotter, and the oceans are rising.

Locally, in Annapolis, Maryland, the city dock in the historic downtown area has a history of flooding, and in 2019 the dock flooded 65 times. The city of Annapolis is suing major oil companies, citing a Union of Concerned Scientists (USC) report, "Encroaching Tides." According to the report, the production of oil, coal, and gas are the major contributors to climate-driven damages, and the fossil fuel companies knew for decades that the harm existed.

The city of Annapolis is creating mitigation plans, like sea walls, to deal with the problems of flooding. They are suing for 45 million from the oil companies to build the sea walls. It is unclear if sea walls will work. According to the same USC report, unless there is a reduction in carbon emission, "Annapolis is likely to face as many as 350 days of title flooding by 2040." That is only 19 years away. Maybe the city dock could become an underwater attraction?