At around 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, I watched a little girl dressed as Cinderella vomit all down her gown while somehow remaining obsessively fixated on the spiraling castle at the heart of Disney’s Magic Kingdom in Florida.

“Maybe she received her home insurance renewal today,” I said to my unimpressed friend, nodding at the tiny figure still staring up at Cinderella’s Castle, an iconic jewel that apparently fills children with magic and sugar.

“Medieval castles are not cheap to rebuild. Not in this economy,” I jokingly added, referring to the home insurance crisis that has seen millions of policies canceled or increased by hundreds of percent nationwide, even for princesses and Prince Charmings.

But I get it. Who wants to talk about the economic side effects of climate change and soaring living costs when we still haven’t even ridden on the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train?

But even in a place that sells unfiltered fantasy and escapism, the harsh realities of the outside world are increasingly apparent within Disney’s famous walls. In recent years, it and other theme parks have raised prices on tickets, food, drinks, and merchandise, all while severe heat, hurricanes, flooding, and other storms have eroded their ability to deliver the experience people want and probably need more than ever.

Far fewer people turn up at Disney theme parks when it’s hot. Data from last summer show a 23% decrease in ticket sales compared to the previous year, with extreme heatwaves and price hikes the reason. Orlando also broke heat records in 2023. Even Florida’s coastal waters exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit in some places.

Hot days can disrupt park operations, leading to lengthy wait times and disgruntled customers who may not return. Character performers need more breaks while energy and water usage increases. Flooding and severe storms, including hurricanes, increase repair costs.

Disney’s six U.S.-based theme parks are in California and Florida, two of the states most threatened by extreme weather and a crumbling home insurance market.

In short, homeowners and Disney are both feeling the economic brunt of severe weather caused by our unpredictable and rapidly changing climate. And with scientists predicting a highly active and dangerous Atlantic hurricane season, it doesn’t seem like things are about to get happier or more magical anytime soon.

This week in The Meltdown, we’ll examine the rising cost of home insurance and take a brief look at this year’s daunting hurricane season.

Drizzle

Whether you believe in climate change or not, some things are simply true. Severe weather has caused a nationwide home insurance crisis. It has always been risky to insure people living on the drought-ravaged West Coast or any state in the Gulf of Mexico, like Florida or Texas. In those places, the risk of expensive weather-related disasters like wildfires or hurricanes was well known, but policy costs were affordable as homeowners shopped around or tweaked policy limits. They made it work.

However, as extreme weather hits previously low-risk parts of the country, insurers are losing money while premiums are doubling and tripling for some homeowners.

Over the last decade, insurers in Iowa have seen profits vanish. Companies were hit by significant losses in 2020 when a derecho, a storm defined by its intense winds, ravaged parts of the Midwest. A series of disasters followed, including tornadoes, wind storms, and hail. Insurers paid out three times what they earned.

This trend is not isolated to Iowa.

A 2023 New York Times analysis showed that insurers recorded losses on homeowners’ insurance in 18 states, up from 12 states five years earlier. The repercussions for homeowners are severe. Insurers are either exiting markets or significantly increasing premiums—some by hundreds of percent—leading many homeowners to receive cancellation notices and forcing them into state-backed high-risk insurance pools offering lower coverage at higher costs.

It could lead to the destabilization of the housing market; without affordable insurance, banks are less likely to issue mortgages, which in turn depresses real estate values and erodes local tax bases that fund essential services.

The rising cost of construction materials and labor doesn’t help. Some experts fear the country is moving towards an uninsurable future, altering how and where people can safely own homes.

Compost Dump

And it’s not about to get better. This year’s Atlantic hurricane season is expected to be extraordinarily intense. Forecasters predict 17 to 25 named storms, an unprecedented number for a May forecast. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) anticipates that between 8 and 13 could evolve into hurricanes, including 4 to 7 major hurricanes of Category 3 or higher.

Why?

Record high water temperatures in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico are what fuel hurricanes, allowing them to change direction and become stronger and more destructive unexpectedly. While these warm waters are primarily affected by the natural transition from La Niña to El Niño, climate change is making things far worse, according to scientists.

That’s all a bit bleak. Sorry!

If you’re forced to go to the Magic Kingdom like I was, find the “It’s a Small World” attraction if you need a laugh. You’ll float slowly past creepy dancing and singing animatronic child dolls of varying nationalities. Oddly, most of them resemble Joan Rivers and Kristi Noem.

I forgot all about Cinderella’s home insurance nightmare for 11 minutes.