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Already, at least one company has cut back. Allstate won't write policies for new customers in Florida, coastal areas of Mississippi and New York. New policies on the Texas coast and in Louisiana won't include wind or storm coverage, which must come from other insurers or the government. Allstate won't write policies for the vast majority of new customers in inland counties like Harris, home to Houston, where the hurricanes may strike but the state government does not offer windstorm insurance.

Insurance companies paid out about $58 billion for catastrophe coverage last year, primarily for hurricanes, the most ever, said Carolyn Gorman, a vice president of the Insurance Information Institute in New York City.

Source: © Copyright 2006 Florida Association of Realtors®