November 21, 2011
By: Jana Bell
As the overall damage tally from the Hurricane Irene in the state of Connecticut reaches $160 million, officials say they are working to revise insurance regulations following the storm.
During a meeting with a committee, Connecticut Insurance Commissioner Thomas Leonardi said he expects to enact new guidelines to specify that a storm must be classified as a hurricane when it hits the state in order for home insurance companies to treat it as one.
The new rules would have the largest impact in the deductible homeowners would pay. While standard deductibles are generally a fixed dollar amount, the deductible for hurricane damage is based on a percentage of a home's value.
Previous regulations allowed for insurers to charge a hurricane deductible if the storm was downgraded to a weaker storm up to 24 hours before causing damage.
Irene weakened from a hurricane to a tropical storm before reaching Connecticut. While most insurance companies chose to waive the hurricane deductible in the state, some have not.
The powerful storm left destruction throughout the East Coast, causing billions of dollars in damage. Power outages were reported in 13 different states.
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