{"id":20972,"date":"2025-05-14T08:52:40","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T12:52:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/?post_type=wfsu-news&#038;p=20972"},"modified":"2025-05-14T09:41:50","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T13:41:50","slug":"a-year-after-the-tallahassee-tornadoes-hows-your-insurance-coverage","status":"publish","type":"wfsu-news","link":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/a-year-after-the-tallahassee-tornadoes-hows-your-insurance-coverage\/","title":{"rendered":"A year after the Tallahassee tornadoes, how&#8217;s your insurance coverage?"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-20972-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/cpa.ds.npr.org\/s390\/audio\/2025\/05\/tornadoes-insurance0514d.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/cpa.ds.npr.org\/s390\/audio\/2025\/05\/tornadoes-insurance0514d.mp3\">https:\/\/cpa.ds.npr.org\/s390\/audio\/2025\/05\/tornadoes-insurance0514d.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>It&#8217;s been a year since three tornadoes were reported in Tallahassee and Leon County. Many residents were starting their day when alerts sounded on their phones.<\/p>\n<p>We remember those events and talk about the recovery process on this week&#8217;s Speaking Of Radio Hour. It was recorded before a live audience last Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah O&#8217;Neil was asleep in her rental home in Indianhead Acres the morning of May 10, 2024, just minutes before the tornado hit. She awoke to find a text message from her mom urging her to take shelter.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I was not taking it very seriously. I opened the window in our bedroom &#8230; and was just kid of looking outside, and it was pretty calm out,&#8221; O&#8217;Neil says.<\/p>\n<p>The sound of birds chirping gave way to something else.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What I was hearing was like a low hum, very far away. I almost couldn&#8217;t hear it,&#8221; O&#8217;Neil says. &#8220;I was listening closely, and it was getting louder and louder and the wind started picking up, and that&#8217;s when I jumped out of bed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>She and her partner ran to the hallway just in time. An EF-2 tornado sent what O&#8217;Neil calls a massive, old growth pine tree into the house, damaging the dining and living rooms and part of the kitchen.<\/p>\n<p>Much of what she owned was destroyed. She started a search for renters insurance days before, but hadn&#8217;t secured any yet.<\/p>\n<p>O&#8217;Neil and her partner eventually found a new place to live after staying with various friends and family for a while. A year later, she says the house they were renting is finally close to being ready for tenants again.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Think about what those tornadoes have done and did to Tallahassee, to people who were very unsuspecting. You just don&#8217;t even think about that ever happening,&#8221; says property insurance consultant Lisa Miller.<\/p>\n<p>She says insurance is important for renters and for property owners, and they should be asking their insurance agents certain questions.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You need to understand &#8212; what would I pay in a deductible if it&#8217;s deemed a tornado? What would I pay if it&#8217;s a hurricane? Talk about flood coverage. This isn&#8217;t just about tornado and wind.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Miller is a former Florida Deputy Insurance Commissioner. She says we need to make our homes as resilient as we can. Of course, there is little that can withstand a direct hit from a tornado, and with a contractor shortage, upgrades and repairs may take a long time. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A tornado is a totally different animal and has its own set of challenges,&#8221; Miller said recently via Zoom. &#8220;Not to say that impact windows or bracing our garage door or strapping our roof down won&#8217;t help, but it&#8217;s difficult when you&#8217;ve got gorgeous, hundreds of years old trees that are going to wind up on top of your house.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>O&#8217;Neil says she misses her old neighborhood, and even after a year has passed, some things are just hard.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I still have really extreme reactions to weather.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Hear more about the community&#8217;s recovery from the tornadoes in the Speaking Of Radio Hour. The conversations were recorded last week with a live audience in our WFSU-TV studios.<\/p>\n<p>The May 15, 2025 show will air at a special time, 7 p.m. Eastern, on WFSU-FM and on the WFSU app. <a href=\"https:\/\/news.wfsu.org\/show\/speaking-of-full-program\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Previous shows can be found here<\/a> and wherever you get your podcasts. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2025 WFSU<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","wds_primary_category":0},"categories":[],"tags":[1136,1135],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A year after the Tallahassee tornadoes, how&#039;s your insurance coverage? - WFSU Local Routes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/a-year-after-the-tallahassee-tornadoes-hows-your-insurance-coverage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A year after the Tallahassee tornadoes, how&#039;s your insurance coverage? - WFSU Local Routes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It&#039;s been a year since three tornadoes were reported in Tallahassee and Leon County. 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