On Tuesday, a bill to renew the National Flood Insurance Program(NFIP), which is set to expire this September, passed a key hurdle in the Senate.  Lawmakers have stepped up their efforts to reauthorize the program which is run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency(FEMA).

The Senate bill would extend the program through 2013, while forgiving a $17 billion NFIP debt run up by the Federal Emergency Management Agency after 2005’s Hurricane Katrina.

Unlike a similar bill passed last year in the House of Representatives, the Senate bill would not add wind damage coverage to the program.

With the start of the hurricane season less than a month away, there are still a large number of residents without adequate flood coverage.  Researchers are predicting well above average hurricane activity for the Atlantic basin this year.

While FEMA has done it’s best in trying to get the word out, there is still a large lack of awareness for many Americans about flood insurance in general.  Unlike wind damage coverage which can be purchased from regular property insurers, there is for the most part no private market for flood insurance.

Florida has some of the highest property insurance rates in the country with the annual threat from hurricane damage.  Consumers and lawmakers alike have been criticizing insurance companies over high rates in the wake of mild hurricane seasons the last few years as well as for what they claim are disreputable industry practices.

Last week, Florida’s Senate passed a property insurance bill that insurance companies were vehemently opposed to.  The proposed bill, which still needs to be passed by the House would freeze rates on the state’s subsidized insurance program.  It would also increase penalties to companies that violate state insurance laws.

“This is about every consumer getting a fair shake at having a fair and square, straight-up relationship with their carrier,” said Sen. Jeff Atwater, R- North Palm Beach, a sponsor of the bill. “It’s really time that consumers deserve to be front and center in the insurance debate rather than it being about what the insurance industry needs.”

The bill would certainly make insurance more accountable and give the state’s insurance office more teeth.  Earlier this year Florida’s insurance commissioner banned Allstate from writing new policies in the state, however the company is still writing policies to this day while it pursues a lengthy appeals process.

Last year the state spent billions of dollars to fund a program that would give insurance companies a discount on costly reinsurance.  It was supposed to help lower rates across the state but insurance companies raised premiums nonetheless.

Seeing as the carrot didn’t seem to work out to well perhaps it is time for the state to use the stick.

Researchers at the Department of Atmospheric Studies at Colorado State University have revised their earlier forecasts for the upcoming hurricane season.  The researchers are now predicting a “well above average” hurricane season for the eastern United States.

The team’s forecast now anticipates 15 named storms forming in the Atlantic basin between June 1 and Nov. 30.  Eight of the storms are predicted to become hurricanes, and of those eight, four are expected to develop into intense or major hurricanes (Saffir/Simpson category 3-4-5) with sustained winds of 111 mph or greater.

Hurricane predictions can be a very inexact science, the forecasts for the last two years have also produced above normal predictions, when in fact they were very mild.  The researchers themselves acknowledge this, saying that the Atlantic basin has the largest year to year variability of any of the world’s tropical cyclone basins.

This year’s forecast is based on a statistical model that uses weather data collected over the last 58 years.  Using the model for each year’s weather data, it accurately predicted an above or below normal forecast for 45 out of the 58 years.

While this is a forecast for overall hurricane activity, we also need to keep in mind that it does not predict how many of these storms will actually make land fall.