As natural disasters continue to ramp up in intensity and frequency, homeowners across the country may also continue to see their home insurance premiums rise.

In the wake of Hurricane Helene’s path of destruction throughout the southern United States, insurance companies are expected to take a serious hit. Ryan Serhant, a realtor who appears on Netflix’s “Owning Manhattan,” shared with Fox Business that the hit insurance companies will translate to higher premiums.

“It is one of the greatest insurance crises that we’ll see, I think, in a very, very long time,” Serhant said.

He went on to share that it’s even worse, noting that most homeowners in Florida and the Carolinas don’t have flood insurance.

“What’s more frightening to me is that only two to four percent of homeowners actually have flood insurance. It’s about $34 billion of bad,” Serhant shared.

This struggle was highlighted in Bankrate’s 2024 Extreme Weather Survey, which noted that 1 in 4 United States homeowners say they are unprepared for the potential costs associated with extreme weather events in their area.

The survey, conducted earlier this year, noted that storms like Hurricane Beryl have “already cost U.S. homeowners — and their insurance companies — billions of dollars in damage.”

The online insurance marketplace Insurify noted in a report that it anticipates home insurance premiums could rise by 7% in Florida this year alone.

Currently, the average Florida homeowner pays $10,996 a year for coverage, according to the latest data from 2023.

Louisiana is second in the nation when it comes to high home insurance premiums, with homeowners paying $6,300, which is three times the national average. Insurify expects costs to rise in 2024 by an additional 23% in the state.

Serhant’s warning of the latest hurricane being a disaster for home insurance companies comes as more than a dozen home insurance companies have gone bankrupt since 2019.

Other home insurance companies have decided to leave states that are more likely to experience catastrophic natural disasters.

As storms become more common, Bankrate warns that the “cost of severe weather could begin before the weather even shifts.”