Will Hurricane Helene impact your insurance rates? [Video]

It’s been a month and a half since Hurricane Helene hit our region, and many in North Carolina are still working with insurance and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to rebuild. But could this once-in-a-lifetime storm have a life-changing impact on local insurance rates?”Very few people in Western North Carolina buy flood insurance,” said Chad McKinney, who owns McKinney Insurance Services. “I personally do not have flood insurance on my house.”An Asheville Watchdog report says fewer than 1% of homes and businesses in Buncombe County have flood insurance. McKinney says part of the reason is most of the region isn’t in a flood plain. “They’re pretty much just around the rivers, as you would suspect, around the creeks. So most people are in 100-year flood plain if they are in a flood plain.” “It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” said Mike Rehnberg, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration meteorologist. “There is …