Caption transcript. This text is pulled from YouTube captions and may contain minor wording errors.
[00:00] what is one of the first and biggest questions I get about investing in Tampa it's intriguing and critical for anyone invested in Tampa Bay to know more about this it's hurricanes I wanted to make this video because I have a lot of investors that have asked me these questions and having it all together on
[00:15] one video to help more people I thought was the best thing to do hey everyone welcome back to the channel Florida is one of the main recipients of this kind of natural disaster so it's a natural question to ask when you're dropping 40 to 200k down on a new home or rental and your not
[00:30] from the area for those unaware of exactly what hurricanes are they're Cyclone shaped storms that originated over tropical waters they escalate over time due to depressions and wind patterns and the uh normal progression is from uh tropical disturbance to depression to storm and finally
[00:48] hurricane categories 1 through five five is the highest possible under the seir Simpson wind scale all right so history lesson believe it or not the last major hurricane to directly hit Tampa Bay was in 1921 a century ago 120 No 102 years ago this monster storm carved out new islands and left them Mark in the
[01:09] history books but just because it's been a while doesn't mean we're immune though some do believe that and I'll explain why remember history isn't just about the past it's about preparing for the future let's go over the last 50 years worth of hurricanes near Tampa and it won't take long it's fairly short
[01:25] hurricane gladus 1968 made landfall near homo sassa 6.7 million in damage killed two people hurricane Elena 1985 an extremely difficult so I read uh hurricane to predict devastated the a appalachicola have a hard time saying that appalachicola bay shelfish industry hurricane Aaron 1995 the first hurricane
[01:48] to strike the United States since Hurricane Andrew in 1992 Aaron caused around 700 million in damage with much of that incurred in Florida hurricane Gordon 2,000 caused much death and destruction in Guatemala and the Yucatan Peninsula Tampa Bay has minor home damage hurricane Francis 2004
[02:08] Francis passed over the central selections or sorry sections of Florida 3 weeks after Hurricane Charlie and hurricane Irma 2017 Irma caused widespread catastrophic damage throughout its long lifetime because it it went into land and then it went back into the Gulf and went back into Land
[02:27] north of Tampa particularly in the Northeastern Caribbean and along the Florida Keys most of the time it does hit Cuba or the keys or both as it makes its way um hurricane Ian 2022 Ian was responsible for over 150 direct and indirect deaths and over 112 billion dollars in damage making it
[02:49] the costest hurricane in Florida's history and the third costest in the United States history it hit Naples area as a category 4 and so why am I talking about all these properties these or properties these past hurricanes they didn't really impact Tampa at all it's because they there really aren't any of
[03:06] their hurricanes that have impacted Tampa more than like the 1921 hurricane which didn't have a name fun fact they didn't name hurricanes until 1950 so you might be thinking like many other people that Tampa is in this sweet spot geographically you know if you look at a map and you see all the past trajection
[03:23] of old hurricanes you see they typically don't hit they don't hit Tampa right they there's like a radius around Tempo where they they have a hard time going Northeastern so gu for for the camera Northeastern but uh they will go up more or they'll carve in more like when they did with with Ian when it hit Naples and
[03:45] in Sarasota um hurricanes have to go beneath Florida and above Cuba to really make a sharp upward rotation in to hit Tampa as well so anyway people have actually looked into why that is and like why it's Tampa just has a hard time like what's so special about Tampa that
[04:07] never really gets a direct hit there's a myth around here that the toab Baga Indian mountains have blessed Tampa and offered protection against hurricanes a little bit more about their history as they the toab Baka people are the land ancestors of Tampa Bay they lived in the area from the 900s to the 1500s and the
[04:24] population significantly decreased with the arrival of the Europeans blah blah blah eventually the tribe was extinct by the 1700s these Mounds have been found in Safety Harbor and near the gandi and it's unclear why they were built but probably they were burials and the
[04:40] Legends passed down from Tempa resident to resident um is that you know whatever they were here for somehow offer protection from the Hurricanes it's a nice myth but for those of us who don't believe in that the real explanation isn't you quite as exciting and while scientists have a hard time identifying
[04:59] um and explaining why Tampa is in such unique like we know that it's kind of a unique position but like what makes it unique and and avoiding all this they've noticed an odd pattern of hurricanes again unable to move Northeastern around Tampa Bay and anyway it's is tough to
[05:15] get into the Gulf around there anyway so most of the time we have hurricanes hit Cuba or Haiti or Miami and so the first step is really going underneath Florida and uh maintaining speed that it doesn't die down over land uh if it wants to hit tampon so I've mentioned that we don't get direct hits but I don't want to
[05:36] sound like we never get affected because we we still get indirect hits it still disrupts work we get power out outages um occasionally and gas prices of course I mean sometimes you can't get gas at all it gets crazy but um can cause wind tree and water damage as well just far less than if we had a direct tip most of
[05:56] the properties under property management and the companies that I've worked for have not had any significant damages from hurricanes um I'm trying to think of the worst situation that has happened from a hurricane I I think it was from a a tree that fell over on a house during Irma and no one was no one was hurt um
[06:13] the roof didn't C in it just created a hole that needed to be covered quickly so for you when buying a rental property it's very important to assess if you want to deal with these issues or completely avoid them by removing trees over top of houses by not buying inside of a flood zone um but here's some
[06:29] common questions I get okay so when is hurricane season generally from August to October each year most likely time for hurricanes to develop and travel here um sometimes it could be as early as June or as late as uh November but August to to October are flood losses covered under standard insurance
[06:48] policies no they're an add-on and uh they're not required unless they're not required by A lender unless you are inside of a flood zone so if you're in zone X you don't have to have a flood insurance policy um most policies will factor in hurricane damage um but not from flood or storm surch damage which
[07:07] is very you know that that can be the most expensive type of damage if you're in the areas that experience that storm surges by the way which I didn't talk about they're very devastating um essentially what a storm surge is is when it pull it sucks water in from the from the Gulf or the bay or both um so
[07:25] the hurricane is miles out from Shore and it sucks all that water in and then as it gets closer it shoves it all back and not really a tsunami but huge waves and then if it's in conjunction with high tide it can really exponentially increase the damage in the in the U the effect of that of
[07:45] that storm surge storm surge doesn't just affect like the the immediate Coastal area like the shore it can it can take those high like 11 ft high water and just shove it in land as far as it can go so um that's why why if you're in low elevated areas um anyway just something to look at when when
[08:04] we're looking at properties all right but back to insurance policies you know flood and storm search damage are add-ons so they're not part of your your main insurance policy your standard one talk to your insurance agent um and if you need to know more information about what you have um but wind damage uh can
[08:25] certainly be a significant during a direct or indirect hit um Plus in storm surch damage though is really what can just you know devastate a property and a whole area the closer to the gulf you are the higher Insurance costs generally are due to this and um hurricane Irma are the most recent in everybody's Minds
[08:42] because it was the last Category 5 hurricane that made most Tampa residents want to want to flee but it didn't hit us directly it weakened by the time it did near Tampa and it serves as a wakeup call really hurricane Ian this storm got people talking about risks insurance and investing in Southwest
[09:00] Florida now what does this all mean for real estate post Irma we saw a significant bounce back prices have nearly tripled since then but since hurricane Ian there's a new variable in the equation and it's higher insurance cost we are about I don't know what the recent rates I know we're above the
[09:18] national average for insurance cost we might be close to double it the psychological impact on buyers and the shift in the market perception buying in a flood zone not buying in a flood zone Insurance you know flood on I don't know if I said this already add-on policies for flood can be about $55,000 annually
[09:36] per year unless you have an elevation certificate which can reduce that potentially in Florida understanding your hurricane and flood insurance is critical homeowners new homeowners especially can trigger new and higher interest rate um Insurance prices not interest prices all right so let's say
[09:53] you're looking to buy a property in Tampa and you're okay with the with um the Hurricanes you just want to know what to do to defend your property the best you can well if it's a rental your property manager is going to have a game plan but most of the time the effort is very
[10:09] minimal um there are some areas and properties where you're going to be recommended to board up the windows and even put sandbags around certain points of Entry um and you know luckily newer properties these days have um there's more regulations over windows and sliding glass doors to be hurricane
[10:25] resistant and so um less worry of these battering completely if something slams into them um unless it's like a tree and then that window's gone but uh in an area if you're in an area where there's a lot of wind blocked by trees or buildings or maybe you're even in a condo three three stories up um there's
[10:45] just less prep to do um there's not no necessarily prep but there's just less prep to do I would caution if you're in an area where there's a lot of a lot of trees though and it's a high category honestly even low category where winds can still be like 50 to 80 mph High category of hurricanes like Irma had
[11:03] bands between um I think it was 150 and 180 mph very fast um it can knock over a healthy tree U much less watch out for the widowmakers around your property and your you know the people you you you care about there widowmakers are rotten trees that are still standing and easily
[11:23] to easily fall over during storms uh you definitely don't want a tree healthy or not to fall on your property and so here's here's an extra tip that I think a lot of property managers try to do but when you are managing a property keep or you own a property really keep an eye on what is
[11:41] over the property if you have a big tree a very mature Tall Tree hangs over the property it can be okay it may may be super healthy if it's super uh if it's very leafy and it's spread out very wide and it can capture a lot of wind from a hurricane um just be careful maybe consider trimming some of the branches
[11:58] to some of the leaves and and you know decrease the wind resistance for a hurricane hurricanes they're just part of life here in Florida thank you for for tuning in um don't forget to like share and subscribe for more insights and if you have questions I didn't answer please leave them in the comment
[12:15] section below thanks for watching
