Landscaping Counteracts Storms and Ct. Insurance Rates
Connecticut and other states with significant exposure to open water, storms, and related property damage are seeing significant increases in home insurance rates. Storm damage from wind, hail, and flooding is especially dangerous for residential and commercial properties. It doesn’t matter much if they are located near the water or well inland, because storm surges, downpours, and high winds cause massive amounts of damage that is rising in cost. Fortunately, a well-planned landscaping design can help reduce potential damage.
How Landscape Design Counteracts Storm Systems
A well-planned landscaping design can protect your home and property against storm damage. An experienced landscape architect can survey your property and home and determine the best way to protect it against high winds, flooding, and erosion. For example, if you have large trees located close to your home or other structures, those trees might not hold up in a strong wind and fall onto your home or other structures.
A landscape architect can ensure trees are not too close and design your property by adding slopes and drainage features that move excess water away from your structures instead of flooding them. A good screen of trees and shrubs can help reduce wind speeds on your property. Adding retaining walls, terraces, and other landscaping features also can improve your property’s natural protection against storm damage.
Property and Casualty Claims Costs Are Rising
Property and casualty insurance claims in Connecticut rose every year from 2019 through 2022 and likely beyond. Connecticut property owners filed $6.4 billion in claims in 2022, which was a record high and up from $5.9 billion in 2021. The 2021 claims amounts were also a record high at the time while the 2022 claims represent a 51 percent increase over the average annual claims volume from the preceding 14 years.
The rising cost of claims causes a corresponding rise in property insurance rates. Connecticut homeowners paid an average of more than $1,925 in property insurance premiums in 2024, which is a $163 increase from a year earlier, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. It also is the highest average annual amount paid for insurance premiums and is likely to go higher.
How Landscape Design Helps
When a property has a landscape design that considers the potentially destructive effects of storms, the property’s owner is less likely to need to file costly claims for storm damage. An effective landscape design starts with hiring an experienced landscape architect who can assess a property, determine its vulnerabilities, and create a landscape design that mitigates the possible effects of storms and the damage they often cause.
A property can be reshaped and have materials installed that enable greater drainage control while protecting against wind damage. The dual threats of wind damage, which includes hailstorms, and external flooding, account for most of the highest property insurance claims. Fire also is a destructive and costly threat that could be related to storm damage – particularly windstorms.
The recent deadly and destructive fires in Lahaina, Hawaii, are a good example of how poor planning and management could lead to destructive and potentially deadly fires that a good landscape design could help mitigate. Keeping the property well-groomed and trees well away from structures and power lines does a lot to help prevent storm damage and potentially deadly and destructive fires.
Hardscaping Elements Help Control Storm Damage
Hardscaping is an important element of any landscape design that more effectively protects property against storm damage. Hardscaping refers to stone, gravel, tile, and other materials that are hard but can help control erosion, drainage, and other destructive elements that often accompany storms. For example, a masonry contractor could pour retaining walls that hold back the earth and enable greater control of water runoff during heavy rainfalls or snowmelt.
Hardscaping could include catch basins for water and semipermeable ground cover that prevents erosion while enabling water to more effectively drain away from a property and its structures. Scheduling a visit from a qualified landscape architect could be the first step to better protecting a property, home, or place of business against the rising threats and costs of storm damage.
Also Read: The Evolution of Excavation: Modern Approaches to Land Development
