Sunshine Sentinel

NFIB member and small business owner Aileen Band from Daytona Beach Shores appeared on NFIB’s Small Business Rundown podcast to share her experiences with natural disaster recovery. Band's business, Tropical Manor, faced its first natural disaster in 70 years when hurricanes struck in 2022.

Band described the challenges of recovery: “The initial response by the contractor was quite timely, covering the roofs and so forth and mitigating the water damage. But then we found that what was projected to be a four month restoration process, actually turned out to be four times longer, approximately one and a half years… And our insurance costs have gone up about 70% since these two hurricanes, but we are really relieved to actually be able to continue to obtain property insurance.”

She advised other small business owners to review their insurance policies regularly: “But I would again say just please carefully look at your property insurance policies before your seasons of bad weather approach just to make sure you’re properly covered.”

Bill Herrle, NFIB Florida Executive Director, discussed the resources available through NFIB during natural disasters and highlighted Florida's challenging insurance market: “Yeah, you know, in Florida, we have a lot of challenges in our insurance market. And boy, I was so struck by Aileen’s comment that she has seen a 70% increase in her insurance, yet her attitude is she’s just so grateful to have it. And just let that sink in for a minute and realize what a challenge that is to business owners.”

Herrle also mentioned the 2023 tort reform effort: “We were deeply engaged in the 2023 tort reform effort that I do have to say that in the dialogue on that, the challenge that we face in rebuilding areas of this time and time again were forefront on legislators’ minds as they decided how they were going to go on this issue… Prior to the Tort Reform Act of 2023, despite all of our challenges with Mother Nature in Florida, Florida really had about 10% of all the homeowners claims in the nation. And yet Florida had 80% of the litigation surrounding homeowners’ insurance.”

The full podcast episode can be accessed online.