USA: As peak hurricane season begins, many homeowners substitute confidence for preparedness
About 25% of homeowners in high-risk states believed themselves ready for this year's hurricanes despite having made no preparations.
By Chris Moon
A few weeks into the most active part of hurricane season, homeowner attitudes have yet to reflect the real risk of storm damage. In a survey of 1,050 U.S. homeowners, ValuePenguin found that while 77% of those in hurricane-prone states said that they felt prepared for hurricane season, nearly half of those 1,050 also said that they hadn't actually started making preparations. At minimum, these numbers imply that 1 in 4 respondents from these high-risk states felt sufficiently prepared while having taken no protective measures.
The results also revealed that many homeowners underestimated the potential cost of hurricane and flood damage. When asked, more than half of all participants nationwide guessed that the average home would require less than $10,000 in damage repairs after a hurricane or flood. Those estimates undershot the average claim amounts in 2017 for wind and hail damage ($10,200) as well as for flooding ($92,000).
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While the severity and location of hurricanes can vary widely from year to year, this and other survey responses suggest that a significant number of homeowners underestimate the likelihood of being personally affected by a hurricane. For instance, most people in the survey said that they would evacuate their home in the event of a hurricane, but 56% said they would only do so if evacuation were mandatory—and about 1 in 10 said they would not evacuate at all.
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