Which Chicago area communities are most at risk for flooding?
CHICAGO (CBS) – For many homeowners around the country, climate change could make their insurance dramatically more expensive in the year ahead, or they could lose their coverage altogether.
In an exclusive look at the growing concern, using new data from First Street Foundation, a nonprofit that tracks climate and insurance trends, CBS News Correspondent Ben Tracy showed the places in the Chicago area that are most at risk.
Many homeowners are already facing this insurance crisis in states like Florida and California, but it will likely affect people in the Chicago area in the years ahead.
According to First Street, it's becoming more expensive to insure property because of natural disasters made worse by climate change.
CBS News analyzed their data, which found the counties in the Chicago area that are most at risk from flooding. In Cook County, 11% of properties are at risk of higher insurance premiums or losing their coverage. And 8% of properties in Will and DuPage counties could have trouble finding affordable insurance.
Looking to the future, about 30 years from now, Lake County could have the sharpest increase in the number of homes at risk.
"We're at a unique point where climate change is intersecting with economic conditions, including inflation, cost of reinsurance cost of construction," said Jeremy Porter, of First Street Foundation. "All of those things taken together are actually costing insurance companies a lot more in regards to the claims they're paying out, which means that they either have to raise their premiums to bring more money in, or they have to stop offering coverage."
Coming up in a special report on CBS Mornings Wednesday, see the story on how the risk of extreme wildfires and hurricanes is causing insurance companies to pull out of California and Florida, and the extreme measures some homeowners are taking to avoid escalating insurance costs.