Hurricane Helene left thousands of homes and businesses in Southwest Florida with major flood damage.
Sadly, many of them don't have flood insurance. So why are people going without it, and is there a chance more people could soon be required to have it, just like home insurance?
Estimates say 20% of Floridians do not have flood insurance. Many of those folks are in neighborhoods like those in North Fort Myers, which have been hit twice in the last two years. Some are asking if now is the time to get flood insurance if you don't live in a flood zone and if you don't have a home loan.
Lisa Oliver’s parents have lived in the same small 1950s North Fort Myers home for 30 years and never had to deal with flooding until Hurricane Ian struck two years ago.
They went all those years without ever carrying flood insurance.
“No! My father didn't. Like I said, nothing ever happened here,” Oliver explained.
Until Ian brought three feet of water into the family’s home, at that time, they thought Ian was a once-in-a-lifetime storm.
However, FEMA suggested they get flood insurance, and her mother took the offer for about $3,000 a month.
Two years almost to the day and Helene hit, and this time, brought about a foot of water into the family’s home.
She's not alone. Her neighbor Lee Murphy and his wife fled when Helene hit and returned to ruin.
“When we came back, we saw all the damage. Everything was turned over in the house. Refrigerator, stove, dryer — flipped over. A bunch of mud,” Murphy recalled.
Murphy, too, has been living in the neighborhood — he retired after Ian — and now lives on a fixed income, so he can't afford any more flooding.
“When I was working, we had the money to get it, and we've been doing OK,” Murphy said.
The question now should everyone be required to carry flood insurance. Murphy said that depends on whether people can afford it and he like many fears rates will increase after two major floods creating billons of dollars in damages statewide.
Mark Friedlander with The Insurance Information Institute said what makes the tragedy worse is most property owners in those hard-hit areas of flooding have no flood insurance.
An issue at center stage of the U.S. Senate race. Republican Rick Scott predicted in Punta Gorda this week insurance rates will rise.
“Logically, it's going to go up. We've got to figure out how to deal with this and make sure we recruit more companies,” Scott told reporters.
His opponent, Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, wants the federal government to do more — and believes it can.
“We are going to have to look at federally backed programs to make sure we have investments to rebuild after these hurricanes,” Mucarsel-Powell told NBC-2.
Although many residents in North Fort Myers aren't interested in rebuilding again, and with more rain and potential flooding expected this weekend, many homeowners are rethinking where they live.
“I think about five of these neighbors have already decided to get out,” Oliver said.
Oliver said she and her neighbors will be keeping a very close eye on things as they fear yet another flood is possible.