At Tuesday’s Council of State meeting, North Carolina Commissioner of Insurance Mike Causey, a Republican, once again stressed the need for flood insurance after the devastation left behind by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina.
He said most of the calls and emails he receives weekly from those affected are regarding losses from floods, and most homeowners do not have flood insurance. The same was true in 2018 when Hurricane Florence hit the eastern part of the state; 98% of homeowners affected did not have flood insurance.
Causey said he has been working with some state legislators to find ways to encourage or even require people to have flood insurance, as the average flood insurance claim is around $20,000.
He said 70% of homeowners in the 20 coastal counties are already in the Coastal Property Insurance Pool.
“We could say going forward anybody that takes out a homeowners’ policy with the Coastal Property Insurance Pool or the Fair Plan for the other 80 counties would be required to have a minimum amount of flood insurance, whether it’s $20 [thousand] or $25,000 with options for increased amounts,” Causey said. “After Hurricane Florence, we got approved through the Rate Bureau for private flood insurance policies, but we’ve not had many takers in the insurance industry. We have one company here willing to write flood insurance. So, most of the flood policies are still with the Federal Flood Insurance Program under FEMA.”
He said he talked to a homeowner in Swannanoa who had 7.5 feet of water in their home, including half a foot from the ceiling to the roof, and their Florida-based flood insurance company told them they wouldn’t be paying for damage to the roof. Causey said they will be working with regulators in Florida to get a settlement.
He also noted that some of the companies are giving what he would consider lowball estimates.
In addition, Causey told the Council that the Town of Swannanoa told the family if they were going to rebuild on the same site, they would have to rebuild the house 14 feet off the ground, and the homeowner said that’s not feasible for them. There are also other issues with private bridges and driveways that have been washed away, and others are calling that they are having an issue with FEMA.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Mo Green, a Democrat, said the recent reorganization of his department is intended to focus on academic services, and now they will have a chief academic officer and academic services all reporting to one person.
The department is also in the middle of a listening and learning tour called “Moe Wants to Know.”
“It is an opportunity for us to hear from folks all across the state, from students, parents, and community members about what they want to see in our public school system,” he said. “It will ultimately lead to the development of a strategic plan for the Department of Public Instruction and the State Board of Education. There is a vision that will drive this work, and it’s called Achieving Educational Excellence, which is, I believe, the successful coupling of academic achievement and character development.”
Green said that North Carolina is poised to have the very best public school system in the entire country, though it will require a lot of work to overcome the challenges, but they must set the bar extremely high.
He also discussed a $25 million grant from the Golden Leaf Foundation, which was made possible by the work done by his predecessor, Catherine Truitt, and others in the department. The grant will support middle schools in the state.
“It will focus on mathematics and improving math outcomes for our students,” Green said. “This is also a focus on Tier 1, Tier 2 rural communities. Schools are learning about the grant and will be applying, and I will be announcing, ultimately, 20 schools that will be part of this grant which is a five-year grant, in June or so of this year.”
Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler, a Republican, reported that there have been two outbreaks of high pathogenic avian influenza on two turkey farms in eastern North Carolina and a wildfire in McDowell County in the western part of the state.
Democrat Gov. Josh Stein pointed out that while the bird flu can be transmitted to other birds, it is not contagious to people. Troxler said North Carolina is the best prepared state in the country to handle the situation.
“I can truthfully say I think North Carolina is probably the most prepared state in the nation to handle these animal diseases, and we do have to be careful with the workers that go into the operations, but we’ve had no outbreaks in humans in North Carolina, and we intend to keep it that way.”
He also mentioned that the Ag Forum would be taking place on Thursday with a focus on the ag economy and disaster relief.
Farmers, Troxler said, had a rough 2024 and need support to make this year a better one.
“We need to get farmers back in business this year,” he said. “It’s been a tough, tough time, and we had probably the worst production year last year that we’ve had in decades. So, we’ve got a lot of work to do in a very short period of time.”
Democrat Attorney General Jeff Jackson gave an update on the latest from his office, including that Purdue Pharma and their owners, the Sackler family, will be paying out a $7.4 billion settlement for their role in the opioid crisis. North Carolina’s state and local governments will receive as much as $150 million from this settlement, which will go to the state and local governments under the terms of North Carolina’s Memorandum of Agreement.
In addition, he talked about a lawsuit he joined alongside the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and nine other states. Jackson is suing six landlords for allegedly working with the software company RealPage to raise rent. The suit alleges landlords use the software company’s algorithm to set rent prices for approximately one-third of one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments in North Carolina.
“We also broadened litigation with respect to RealPage, which was a company that owned a piece of software that used artificial intelligence, we allege, to unlawfully raise people’s rates, and we broadened that litigation to include six major landlords that between them control 70,000 apartment units in North Carolina, enormous shares, particularly in the Research Triangle area,” he said. “Roughly one-third of all the one and two-bedroom apartments controlled by landlords that use this artificial intelligence software. It’s the same in the Charlotte metro area, roughly one-third.”
Jackson said there was also some good news last Friday when the North Carolina Supreme Court unanimously ruled to uphold the Safe Child Act as constitutional. It allows lawsuits from alleged victims of child sexual abuse years after the original statute of limitations ended.
Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, a Democrat, said her department has revamped its website and is 85% compliant with Title 2 of the American Disabilities Act.
Marshall also noted the growth of businesses in the state since his tenure began in 1997, stating that it reached the two million mark last year.
Democrat Lieutenant Gov. Rachel Hunt said that during her first year in office, she plans to focus on tackling the childcare crisis and early childcare education and championing the state’s strong community colleges to build a” future-ready North Carolina.”