Hartford might be the “Insurance Capital of the World,” but that doesn’t mean everyone in Connecticut is getting the insurance they need.
The Connecticut Insurance Department’s Severe Weather Mitigation and Resiliency Advisory Council is trying to provide resources for residents to reinforce their roofs and properly insure their homes and properties. And the Council’s first course of action is trying to reinforce residential roofs.
The Council was commissioned in October, 2024, weeks after flooding devastated large parts of the state, killing two people and causing damage. It had its second public meeting on Thursday, May 8.
According to Insurance Department Commissioner Andrew Mais, the Council has become more important due to uncertainty surrounding the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) future.
“Not to say we’re on our own; we’re in this together,” Mais said. “And we need to make sure that we as a state… are doing everything we can to reduce the risk, to reduce the cost and to ensure that our citizens are protected against national catastrophe, physically and economically.”
One of the issues is that some of the most vulnerable home- and property-owners do not know that they are at risk of flooding, so they don’t take out flood insurance.
“We know now that 90% of the flooding damage occurs outside of Federal Emergency Management-designated flood claims,” Co-Chair Sonja Larkin-Thorne said. “It occurs in neighborhoods, in towns that consumers think, oh, I don’t need a flood policy, because I’m safe.”
The majority of flood damage occurs in inland areas, like West Hartford, Oxford and Southbury. In Southbury alone, cost estimates range from $91 million and $100 million to rebuild damaged buildings from the flooding this summer.
“What we have come to realize is rain is our biggest nemesis, not just hurricanes,” Larkin-Thorne said. “Rain and wind in Connecticut.”
The Council is working on an educational campaign to let people know if they should invest in flood insurance. But, before the Council will do this, its first order of business is to implement a “Fortified Home Program.” The first stage of this program would reinforce roofs to make them less susceptible to wind and rain damage.
In Connecticut, there are approximately 930,000 owner-occupied homes, according to a report from the Advisory Council’s Program Design subgroup. Of those, 833,000 are insured—which costs around $648 billion in coverage. The uninsured homes are at risk of damage during heavy rains and windstorms.
“Ensuring the roof and the envelope of the roof [are reinf helps prevent significant damage to the property,” George Bradner, the associate deputy commissioner of the Department of Insurance, said.
The Council is looking at ways to provide grants for people to reinforce their roofs. These grants would offer up to $10,000 to $15,000 to primary insured single-family homeowners, or small owner-occupied rental properties, to fortify roofs.
Luckily, it does not take a lot to reinforce a roof. The average cost of a new roof for a house is between $10,000 and $15,000 in Connecticut. It only costs between $1,000 and $2,000 to reinforce the roof of a 2,000 square foot house, which would make them less likely to be damaged from wind and rainstorms.
“That’s really not that much more money in order to get the benefit of fortifying,” Council Co-Chair Robert Hotaling said.
It would require around $1.8 billion in investments to increase roof resiliency in Connecticut, according to Hotaling, who gave a presentation for the Council’s Finance subgroup. In his list of potential funding, Hotaling said that he had a productive conversation with the Connecticut Department of Housing to reinforce roofs. He also said the Connecticut Green Bank’s Smart E-Loans could be useful.
Green Bank President and CEO Bryan Garcia is a member of the Advisory Council.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently froze $100 million that was allocated to the Connecticut Green Bank. Some of this money was meant to support Smart E-Loans. The Green Bank’s Board of Directors recently voted to reallocate money to support this program.
The Green Bank’s parent organization, the Coalition for Green Capital, is suing the EPA to gain access to these funds.
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