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Debbie continued to drop large amounts of rain across Florida today, forcing residents in low lying areas from their homes. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, the rain also forced the closing of the major East-West highway in Northeast Florida.

Shirley Hendrickson and her family spent Tuesday trying to salvage some of their belongings. She was awakened at one a.m. to find water in her house.

“By then there was water in the house already past our ankles,” Hendrickson said. “Now, it’s up past our knees in there. I lost everything I got; my computer, my TV.”

Dozens of homes in this Live Oak neighborhood are flooded.

The biggest fear in this neighborhood is that the water isn’t done rising, and that it will get worse tomorrow and the next day.

The water rose several inches while we watched.

“I had to go try to swim in and save somebody, because he didn’t want to leave the house, you know, he was an older resident,” resident Saione Williams said.

The rising water also forced the closing of interstate 10 late Monday night. It remained closed Tuesday.

“The interstate being closed inconveniences everybody, but safety is priority,” state trooper Al Hughes said.

The closure resulted in a 25 mile detour that left many motorists baffled.

“Where do I go? I’m trying to get to Coco Beach.”

“So how do we get to Jacksonville?”

In Tallahassee, the state’s emergency management director told the Governor and Cabinet the worst danger may be yet to come.

“Oftentimes in these storms, it’s not the actual storm that causes injuries or death, it’s the cleanup process,” Emergency Management Director Bryan Koon said. “So you need to make sure you don’t enter standing water.”

The flooding is expected to continue throughout the week.

Tropical storm Debby is the fourth named storm of the year, marking the first time there have been four named storms before July first. Mike Vasilinda is in Apalachicola, where the storm has already cut power lines and forced Tourists to head for calmer weather.

Electrical line crews are being moved into the panhandle by the dozens.

Scattered power outages plague North Florida. St. George Island, off Apalachicola, has been ordered evacuated,

“The power company is saying power not until Friday or the weekend,” state trooper John Tallman said.

sending tourists home.

The Belts family from Marshall, Illinois is looking for blue skies.

“Well, this isn’t the first time we’ve been through a Tropical Storm here, so we’re headed somewhere else now,” Gretchen Belts said.

Reporter: Where are you going?

“We’re not sure yet, ” she said.

Debby is the first time that there have been four named storms before July first.
The banks of the Apalachicola River are about one hundred feet over here, you can see it’s already overflowing, covering roads. The real danger of this storm isn’t it’s intensity, but just how long all of this is going to last.

Local residents are taking the storm in stride.

“Who knows what’s going to happen,” Carrabelle resident Linda Westenfelder said. “We’re just trying to be careful. We boarded up last week just to make sure.”

The state has not yet asked for Federal assistance, but Governor Rick Scott has declared a state of emergency.

“Like always, everybody should have food and water on hand,” Scott said. “Just be prepared and use common sense. And be careful.”

The state’s emergency operations center is at level one, its highest activation.

On the eve of hurricane season, Citizens, the state run insurer of last resort, is considering dramatic rate increases to try and make private insurance companies more attractive and lessen the risk for taxpayers.

Sunshine State Insurance executives left the Capitol Thursday after making their case for a 17 percent rate hike. They have 45 thousand policyholders. The company faces higher reinsurance costs because new models show a bigger risk inland than in years before.

Sunshine is one of twenty two companies who, since the first of the year, have asked for rate hikes larger than ten percent. State regulator Bob Lee says many of the hikes are justified.

“It’s a combination of reinsurance, expected hurricane losses from the model, non hurricane losses from the model–sinkholes are a particular one,” Lee said.

But while everyone else is asking for double-digit rat hikes, Citizens, the state run insurer of last resort, is limited to just ten percent increase each year. Legal advisors are now telling the company it can begin charging new customers actuarially sound rates. That could mean 18 percent hikes inland and fifty percent on the coast.

“Anyone who wrote new business after the effective date of the rates would then, new customers would have the full rate,” Christine Ashburn with Citizens Insurance said.

If Citizens actually goes through with charging rates that are financially sound, what the company will be saying is, “Stop! you don’t want to do business with us; go somewhere else!”

A Citizens committee discussed the rate hikes  in a conference call on Thursday.

“The new business rates aren’t capped as we understand the law,” Citizens Insurance President Tom Grady said.

Citizens board could vote on the higher rates as early as June.

Last year, the Office of Insurance Regulation approved 45 rates hikes for private insurance companies that were greater than ten percent, some of them as large as thirty five percent.

State officials say state law forbids them from talking about Sanford Shooter George Zimmerman’s concealed weapons permit. Information about concealed weapons was taken out of the public domain in 2006, so we don’t know who has a concealed weapon, but as Mike Vasilinda tells us, we do know a lot of people are carrying weapons in Florida.

One in every 20 Floridians has a valid concealed weapons permit. Sanford shooter George Zimmerman still has his. State law is very specific about when the permits can be suspended or revoked.

“If you’re charged with a felony crime, and the department is notified, we can certainly move to have the license suspended,” Sterling Ivey with the Florida Dept. of Agriculture and Consumer Services. “Once a conviction takes place, we can revoke that individual’s license.”

This past year, state lawmakers lowered the cost of a concealed permit by fifteen dollars. They now cost 70 dollars. Applicants must also pass a gun safety course. The Brady Project to prevent gun violence says concealed carry permits are too easy to get in Florida.

“You know, this man George Zimmerman, is a living example of that,” Brady Project President Dan Gross said. “This is a guy who had an arrest record, this is a guy who had a violent past. This is a guy who in numerous other states would never be offered a permit to carry a loaded, hidden, handgun.”

The NRA declined to appear on camera for this story. But they argue that statistics show only law abiding citizens get and keep a permit. State figures show 98 percent of all applicants receive a carry permit.

Since 1987, more than 2 million concealed weapons permits have been issued in Florida, and of those permits just three of every thousand have been revoked.

The Brady project counters that just one concealed permit in the wrong hands is an injustice.

In addition to lowering the license fee, lawmakers also reduced the renewal fee by ten dollars. Concealed weapons permits now cost about eight and a half dollars a year.

If lawmakers don’t act by Friday, Florida’s unemployment tax will more than double. The tax is going from 71 dollars an employee to more than 170. As Whitney Ray tells us, efforts are underway to reduce the increase, but lawmakers will have to act fast or they’ll run out of time.

Good food and great services are the ingredients for success for Brian Rowe and his BBQ business. Piggy’s BBQ employees 35 workers. The restaurant has added catering and a food truck, but the rising price of food and fuel presents a huge challenge.

“It hurts our bottom-line. I’m not going to do a price increase to our customers,” said Rowe.

It could get worse. Piggy’s is about to be hit with a 35-hundred dollar increase in state unemployment taxes. The tax is skyrocketing from 71 dollars to more than 170 per employee.

“It’s kind of a double whammy there. When you have all these increases that are affecting us, ultimately you will have to increase the prices or drop your staff and have fewer staff,” said Rowe.

And if lawmakers don’t act by Friday there will be an 817 million dollar increase to all business owners statewide. Legislation to cut the increase in half is being heard late in session. State Senator Ellyn Bogdanoff says the bill will make it across the finish line.

“I don not anticipate Sine Dieing before this thing passes. This is a priority of the governor and we have been working diligently to get it through,” said Bogdanoff.

The increase is needed to pay back the federal government. In 2009, the state ran out of cash to pay unemployment claims. Florida borrowed 2.6 billion dollars from Uncle Sam to keep the money flowing and now the bill has come due with interest.

Critics of the bill say delaying the increase will only prolong payment to the federal government, and since they are charging interest, in the long run businesses will end up paying more.

Everyone with a property insurance policy in Florida is paying for hurricane damage from 2004 and 2005. The reason, Citizens Property Insurance didn’t have the cash on hand to pay all its claims. The state run insurer of last resort has now grown to 1.4 million policies. As Whitney Ray tells us, state lawmakers are trying to lower the risk, but disagree on how it should be done.

If you insure a house, a car or even a boat in Florida, you may be shocked to know that your policy includes charges for hurricanes that hit in 2004 and 2005.

Stephanie Wilson’s car insurance policy includes a 10 dollar assessment for those storms.

“I don’t think it’s fair,” said Wilson.

The average homeowner pays 30 bucks a year. Those payments will continue through 2017.

Citizens Property Insurance has more risk than reserves, and since the state runs Citizens, when it can’t pay its claims, the costs are passed on to every policyholder in Florida through emergency assessments.

State Senator Garrett Richter is sponsoring legislation to lower the risk by allowing out-of-state insurance companies to take Citizens policies.

“Citizens of Florida are on the hook for 500 billion dollars in exposure if hurricanes come and I think everyone can agree that we need to shrink Citizens and take it back to insurer of last resort,” said Richter.

State Senator Mike Fasano agrees that Citizens is taking on too much risk, but opposes the bill because the companies that would write the new policies are out of reach of Florida regulators.

“They have no recourse if the insurance company, the out-of-state, unregulated surplus-lines company, were to all of a sudden, which they will, raise rates because they don’t have to get approval from the Office of Insurance Regulation,” said Fasano.

If nothing is done and a major storm hits a large Florida city, emergency assessment could jump from 30 dollars a year, to more than 400. The bill has already passed the House. If it passes the Senate and is signed in to law, out-of-state companies could begin taking customers from Citizens. The customers they pick would receive a notice in the mail. If a policyholder didn’t want to leave Citizens, they would have to respond to the letter.

There are 1.5 million Citizens Property Insurance Customers and a thousand more are added each day. Citizens doesn�t have near enough money to pay claims if a major storm hits Florida. As Whitney Ray tells us, when the 2012 legislative session begins next week lawmakers will consider several bills to lessen the state�s risk.

It�s been a record six straight years since a hurricane hit Florida and insurance experts fear the state is due for a storm. Private Insurance organizations teamed up for a news conference Wednesday to talk about problems the state faces because Citizens is growing by a thousand policies a day.

�We do support anything that lessens the impact and decreases the amount of policies going into Citizens,� said Donovan Brown with Property Casualty Insurers.

Several bills would lessen the state�s risk by enticing more private insurers to write policies in Florida and forcing some citizens� customers onto surplus lines.

Surplus line companies are less regulated and more expensive than Citizens. The bill would allow customers forced in to surplus companies to opt back into Citizens.

�It would be the same take out process used today for admitted carriers,� said Don Brown with Reinsurers Association of America.

If a major storm destroys Citizens properties, private insurers would have 30 days to pay millions of dollars in Citizens assessments. There is a bill to reduce the amount of the assessments and give insurers more time to come up with the cash.

�So it�s not the shock to the bank account of the company, the immediate shock. They would get to collect it then remit it,� said Don Brown.

Industry Experts says the plan isn�t perfect, but it�s a start. The industry doesn�t expect a bill with massive changes to the insurance market this session because lawmakers will be busy with redistricting and the budget.

Hurricane Irene is the tenth billion dollar storm in the US so far this year, the most in recorded history. At one point 12 states were in a state of emergency as Irene moved up the east coast. As Whitney Ray tells us, supporters of a national catastrophe fund say the widespread destruction highlights the need for national protection.

Wind, water and fire are a few of the elements destroying large parts of the country this year. 2011 started with snow storms in the Northeast and Midwest, followed by tornados in the South and wildfires all over.

The National Flood Insurance Program is bankrupt as water begins to recede in South Dakota where it�s been a soaked summer. So far this year there have been 10 storms, each causing more than a billion dollars in damage.

That�s the most billion dollar storms ever in a single year in the US. Some say its proof the country would benefit from a national catastrophe fund. We caught up with President Barack Obama while on the campaign trail in 2008. He supported more federal help.

�I think it�s very important that the people of Florida are able to get insurance and I think the nation government has to provide some help,� said the President in September of 2008.

But getting congress on board has been tough, because most states have less exposure than Florida. Industry expert Bob Lotane says the recent sting of storms proves no one is safe.

�We�ve had twisters that have destroyed a good sized city in the middle of the country. We�ve had earthquakes that were all up and down the eastern coast and the Atlantic coast and now we�ve had a hurricane that has hit 12 states, possible the worst damage is being seen in Vermont,� said Lotane.

Florida has its own cat fund, but critics say it�s not fat enough to keep the state from going bankrupt if a major hurricane hits a large city. A national fund would make that scenario less likely. Advocates of a national cat fund believe the reassurance would bring more insurance companies into Florida and could help the state drop costly Citizens Property Insurance Policies.

Governor Rick Scott and the capital press corps shared donuts and coffee for more than an hour this morning. Scott hosted an open house for reporters at his office for the first time since he became governor. Scott talked about everything from growing up poor to buying his first business. A donut shop.

�Once we got out of the donut business we didn�t have donuts for five years, because what we did in the donut business is we gave everybody all the free donuts they wanted, who worked there, because after the second day you won�t want eat them, because you can�t take all that sugar in your body,� said Scott.

Reporters were allowed to ask questions for about an hour, a far cry from the first six months of his administration when reporters found it more difficult to get access to the governor. Political strategists say Scott is changing his communications strategy in an effort to better communicate his message with the public.