Category: Billion Dollar Coa$tline

Part Eight: Tony Bartelme and the Pulitzer You and I may be very concerned about the issues surrounding our homeowners insurance. But have you ever asked yourself the question, “Is it just us . . . or is this really a serious, widespread problem?” The Charleston Post and Courier can help us with the answer.

OUR READERS RESPOND For the past four months, Lowcountry Weekly has been running a series of articles by Daryl Ferguson about the SC Homeowners Insurance crisis. The series isn’t over yet – unfortunately, neither is the crisis – but in this issue, we’re taking a break to publish some of your feedback. The response to the series has been overwhelming, and we regret that we don’t have room to post every letter we’ve received. We’ve attempted to gather a broad cross-section of opinion here, and have only published those letters that included the writer’s full name. We are thrilled with the great response to this series and look forward to bringing you the rest of it in upcoming issues. As always, thanks for reading Lowcountry Weekly!

Part 7: What Will It Take? The Post and Courier’s headline banner for their Easter Sunday newspaper did not focus on Easter eggs, national news, or a train wreck. The Sunday headline banner read, “OUTRAGE OVER HOME INSURANCE.” The Gazette/Packet reprinted the article the following Tuesday. In that article Tony Bartelme, the Post and Courier’s Pulitzer Prize finalist, summarized the fact that coastal homeowners are literally going viral on their escalating homeowners insurance premiums.

Part Six: Disappointment and Exhilaration There is no more painful task than to make the case that someone is not qualified for a job . . . especially when the applicant, or nominee, wants the job. Ray Farmer wanted the job. He wanted to be the next Commissioner of Insurance for South Carolina. But by any objective test, he was not qualified.

Part Five: Governor Haley, Missing in Action   By April of last year I knew we had a sizeable homeowners insurance problem. Our premiums were among the highest in the nation. An insurance industry insider had secretly given us the numbers that showed that our risks were “relatively low.” By that time we believed that we had identified most of the problems.

Part Four: A Double Barrel Problem How big is our insurance problem?   By August of 2011, I knew we had a sizeable homeowners insurance problem. But that soon became just the tip of the iceberg. My insurance industry “deep throat” had suggested that we have the potential to lower our premiums by 30-50%.

Part Three: Shocker at the Department of Insurance (Read Parts One and Two)   Bob Woodward met his Deep Throat in the middle of the night . . . in a parking garage. I met mine on the telephone.

Part Two: Enter a “Deep Throat” Read Part One: The Discovery   It took three years of digging. I had solved the dinner party question. Hurricanes usually turn away from our coast during the fall season. And now I know why. Yes, it is possible for them to break through; but it is rare. What lay ahead of me was nothing short of a Sherlock Holmes story. But in this case, it was a true story… one that I will never forget. And this story involved a “Deep Throat.”

Part One: The Discovery   The map you see here identifies a one billion dollar opportunity. It was published by the National Hurricane Center in 2010 to illustrate the projected frequency of hurricanes. But it shows much more than that. Notice where the coastline is edged in deep blue. That color band literally identifies the best fall weather in the South.