Days after and four other states, Compass real-estate agent Alexis Smith-Frady is picking up the pieces in her own home. More than three feet of water flooded her 1,400-square-foot bungalow in Bradenton, she said, adding that a FEMA inspector who visited deemed it unhabitable. Now, she's bouncing between hotels until she figures out a more permanent solution.
"We have kind of a two-level house — it's not a two-story, but there are two levels," Smith-Frady told Business Insider. "The top level was spared last year with , and then this year it got our entire house." She said she did not have flood insurance for the first 11 years she lived there but now has flood and hazard insurance that costs her about $7,000 a year.
By contrast, Smith-Frady added, she owns a cabin in North Carolina where the insurance bill is about $700 a year. She's not sure whether to repair the existing home or start from scratch. "If we fix our home, it's going to be a three- to six-month process," Smith-Frady said.
"But if we build, it will probably be closer to 18 months because there's going to be quite a few people trying to do the same thing," she added. Hurricane Helene caused $30.5 billion to $47.
5 billion in wind and flood damage across 16 states, CoreLogic estimated. The real-estate data firm expects the National Flood Insurance Program to provide about $4.5 to $6.
5 billion of insurance to homeowners across Florida and the southeastern US — including in parts of Florida that haven't experien.