Hurricane Francine, the sixth named tropical cyclone of the Atlantic hurricane season, hit the Louisiana coast on September 11, causing more than $1 billion in damage.

What happens?

Hurricane Francine made landfall in Terrebonne Parish as a Category 2 storm, blowing landfall with winds of 100 miles per hour. The storm was the third hurricane to hit the United States coast this year.

There were no immediate reports of Francine's death, but it caused extensive damage across the state. Francine flooding occurred in the Gulf Coast region, including parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.

The top two providers of home insurance in Louisiana are State Farm and Allstate, with local market shares of 22% and 14%, respectively, according to Bloomberg. According to catastrophe modeler Karen Clark & ​​Company, the cost to insurers will be about $1.5 billion.

When total damage and economic loss are taken into account, the cost could be as high as $9 billion, according to AccuWeather and Insurance Journal.

Why is Francine’s insurance cost important?

After Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana lawmakers passed a law known as the “three-year rule.” This prevented insurance companies from terminating policyholders who had renewed with them in the last three years.

Watch now: How did Hurricane Helene wreak havoc so far inland?

In May of this year, the state lifted the three-year rule to make it easier for insurance companies to abandon some of their riskiest properties. Those in favor of repeal hoped to attract more competition from insurance companies to Louisiana.

According to Insurance Business Magazine, Francine's full impact on property and casualty insurers is unclear, but most losses were expected to be “absorbed by primary insurers.”

“It looks like we dodged the bullet better than we have in some previous recent storms,” Ben Albright, CEO of Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of Louisiana, told NOLA.com. “This will not be a homeowner event like Laura, Delta, Zeta and Ida.”

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However, many end up paying for the damage to their property out of their own pocket. According to FEMA, most private home insurance policies do not cover flooding.

What is being done about rising insurance costs?

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the United States was hit by a record number of billion-dollar weather disasters last year, causing $92.9 billion in damage. Hurricanes Francine and Helene are added to the growing list this year.

In response to the increasing number of these events, homeowners' insurance premiums have increased rapidly. The biggest increases in insurance costs are expected in vulnerable states like the Carolinas, Florida, Louisiana, Texas and California, maps from a recent Axios report show.

Learning more about how our overheating planet increases the likelihood of costly disasters can not only prepare us to educate our family and friends about these issues, but also empower us to take action.

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