Insurance commish doesn’t expect rate increases due to Francine

Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple says he does not expect Hurricane Francine to lead to an increase in property insurance rates in the state.

Temple called Hurricane Francine a “low impact” event.

“Most of the damage from what I’ve seen, is gonna be within peoples named storm deductible or the companies retention,” Temple said “So its unlikely to pierce the reinsurance veil if you will,” said Temple.

Francine made landfall on Wednesday in Terrebonne Parish as a Category Two storm with maximum sustained winds of nearly 100 miles per hour.

Temple emphasized that while the hurricane caused some localized damage, it did not reach the level of destruction that typically triggers widespread rate hikes. He praised the preparedness of communities and the resilience of infrastructure in minimizing the storm’s effects in Lafourche and Terrebonne Parish.

“They paid for them, they taxed themselves, they built them and they work.  After Hurricane Barry they had 11,000 properties flood.  Francine, zero properties flooded (inside the leveee system),” he said.

Hurricane Barry made landfall in July 2019.

Temple concluded that insurance companies interested in doing business because of insurance reforms in Louisiana are still committed to coming to the state.

“If any company that was interest in doing business in Louisiana because of the reform that we did, if they are scared off because of Hurricane Francine, then we didn’t want them to be in the state anyway,” he said.