Just ahead of hurricane season, which officially kicked off June 1, the National Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds held a webinar/campfire session for its members—owners of private campgrounds—about disaster planning. The session wasn’t without merit, but as with many ARVC offerings, it was more reactive than proactive, following the news rather than getting ahead of it. Moreover, the session failed to deliver on its timely promise that it would “consider insurance options,” the lack of which is shaping up as a crucial economic threat to the industry.
Yes, it’s critical for RV parks to have written disaster plans, to get in the habit of educating their guests about the kinds of disasters most common to the area and how to respond to them, and to have a close working relationship with local first-responders—all bases covered by the ARVC panelists. But these and similar bits of advice are limited in scope and imagination, a quiet murmur at the back of a room that badly needs to be shocked awake by a loud klaxon wail. As Susan Motley, ARVC’s education director, mildly observed, “We’re having disasters now in areas where people aren’t used to having them”—not that there’s much outreach to ARVC members to explain what that means.
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Natural disasters disrupt camping plans
Campers know about the growing challenge firsthand. Nearly one in five told The Dyrt for its 2023 camping report that wildfires and other natural disasters had disrupted their camping plans in 2022—triple the rate in 2019. Tornadoes, hurricanes, atmospheric rivers and record-breaking snowfalls have added to an assault most prominently headlined by wildfires, with their continent-spanning smoke plumes. At least five popular state parks in the Sierra were buried in so much snow they weren’t able to open their campgrounds by Memorial Day weekend, their usual opening day, and melting snows are still revealing fresh damage throughout the range, including the destruction of three footbridges critical to hikers of the John Muir Trail.
An eye-opening snapshot of current environmental risks is provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), whose National Risk Index maps 18 different threats across the U.S. But as important as knowing where we are is knowing where we’re headed, and in that respect the news isn’t good. As I wrote back in early March, First Street Foundation makes current circumstances seem downright utopian compared to what we can expect over the next 30 years. And First Street thus far has looked at only four of the 18 extreme weather events that FEMA has been mapping.
Mapping out disaster planning
The striking thing about all these assessments is that when they’re plotted on a map, you quickly realize the last places you’d want to live or camp—or own a campground—are either Florida (and the Gulf Coast in general) or California (and the West Coast in general). And if the maps don’t convince you of that, the insurance meltdown in both states should. State Farm and Allstate are both sharply trimming their exposure in California, while Farmers Group has stopped offering new policies in Florida. American International Group is planning to restrict its policies in scores of areas at high risk of floods and wildfires in more than half-a-dozen states, including New York, Delaware, Florida, Colorado, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.
The problem of weather-inflicted damage is so severe in Florida and California that both have backup insurance plans (so-called Fair Access to Insurance Requirements plans, or FAIR) to provide at least some limited coverage when the private sector goes belly-up or refuses to sell or renew policies. But now even the FAIR plans are foundering. Florida’s, for example, announced in April that it may have to borrow as much as $750 million to cover claims caused by Hurricane Ian, an expense that comes at an especially inopportune time, given today’s high-interest rates. In California, meanwhile, the state-run FAIR plan has accumulated a $332 million deficit while it charges premiums that are too low to cover claims and has limited reinsurance coverage in case of future catastrophic wildfires.
Such plans amount to a hidden tax that politicians don’t like to acknowledge, and they’re growing at a rapid clip: Florida’s FAIR plan has tripled the number of its policies since 2019; nationwide, FAIR policies saw a 29% growth in policy numbers from 2018 to 2021. Clearly that’s a trend that can’t be sustained long-term.
Campgrounds and RV parks more vulnerable
Meanwhile, it goes almost without saying that campgrounds and RV parks are more vulnerable than other businesses to environmental assault. Many are located along coasts, lakes or inland waterways susceptible to flooding, and many more are in heavily wooded areas that make them sitting ducks in a wildfire—but the standard guidelines for reducing fire exposure, such as removing vegetation within 100 to 200 feet of any structure or RV pad, essentially would transform many campgrounds into parking lots. Most also are located in rural areas, where firefighters, EMTs and law enforcement are stretched thin and have lengthy response times. Disaster not only is more likely to strike a campground than, say, a motel or hotel, but when it does, it’s likely to cause proportionately more extensive damage.
These are complicated problems to assess and analyze, which may be reason enough for ARVC to shirk from doing so. Nor does it help that ARVC members as a rule are in deep denial about their predicament—if it were otherwise, they’d be clamoring for ARVC to step up to the plate. They’d be insisting that ARVC create a national database of the specific environmental threats faced by each RV park and campground; they’d push for an inventory of which campgrounds have suffered what natural disaster damages and at what cost; and they’d compel ARVC to start the discussion about insurance options that was promised—but not delivered—for its webinar.
And that’s just for starters.
You can’t effectively address a problem until you’ve defined its nature and dimensions. What came through in the ARVC webinar, however, was at best a fragmented understanding of a growing threat, and a somewhat wistful reliance on the industry’s long-cherished tradition of campground owners helping each other in times of need. That’s an admirable history, indeed, but one that’s completely inadequate for the size and scale of the storms ahead.
Andy Zipser is the author of Renting Dirt, the story of his family’s experiences owning and operating a Virginia RV park, and of Turning Dirt, a step-by-step guide for finding, buying and operating an RV park and campground. Both books are available through bookstores or at Amazon.com.
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You left out grasshoppers and frogs from your “Acts of God” list. It sure is a good thing that hurricanes have become less frequent and less powerful over the last 60 years compared to the previous 60 year period. Record cool winter for half the country plus a once in 50 year snowpack in the west. Oceans so healthy that ORCAs are being sighted off the Carolina coast for the first time in 8 decades. Glaciers are growing again, (who saw that coming?). Hole in the Ozone almost closed.
What a wonderful CREATION our planet is. Thank you Father.
Fact!
Well, here’s GRASSHOPPERS for you Cancelproof. The Lubber grasshoppers are here in Central Florids in huge numbers. 3 to 4 inches long. I think they must be eating the frogs this year – nothing will eat them. They can strip one of our big elephant ear plants in a day. They are impervious to insecticides. It may take a hurricane to blow them away. And just when we think we may win one.
OMG, grasshoppers eating the frogs is sooooo funny, albeit devastating to Florida crops and vegetation.
As a youth growing up on the Saskatchewan prairies we had some summers that we would need to pull our cars over every 2 hours or so to clean the little jumpers out of our grills in order to allow some air flow to the radiator. They like the heat and dont ever seem to help cool things down. Like driving through a blizzard, wipers flapping, smeared guts, scooping cans of water out the window onto the windshield doing 55.
Well {bleeped}, let’s blame Mother Nature, the 1st responders, the insurance companies. But never take any responsibility for your own lack of common sense! “Let’s take a selfie with a fuzzy cow in Yellowstone”. Why should the state bankroll insurance because you live in a hurricane prone state or in the middle of a brushfire waiting to happen? It was your choice – right! If a major storm / rain event was coming or a wildfire was raging in my direction, I would be making tracks to get away. About time we start expecting people to take some responsibility for their own actions / lives. Hurricane coming – move. Wildfire area – clear the brush! Come on people!
Thank you. Seems that everyone wants everyone else to assume their risk at a discounted rate. That never works well in the long term.
If we have to take responsibility for everything, we are no longer able to be victims of everything. If personal responsibility is expected then how can we continue making bad choices without bad consequence? Meanie!!
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Do all of the fire mitigation actions above and then some and call your insurance company. “Nice try, but the map says you’re in a high fire risk so no discount for the fire mitigation you’ve done.” We have just gone through that in our coop in SoCal. At least we still have coverage for THIS year.
Have to manage the forests first. Without management of forests, no amount of secondary prevention even matters. Take the handcuffs off the loggers and watch the number of forest fires go down. Profits for logging, savings for firefighting. Win/win.
Unfortunately for green movement, we need to be OK with profit for the logging industry. It worked for 100 years. Maybe we go back to that fire prevention/forest mgmt model and quit blaming the climate.
Steve I kinda get what you are saying but if we evacuated about 8 or 10 hurricane prone states, where would you put all of us and where would you go to vacation in the sun and seashore? I moved from the Midwest to Florida many years ago, into this hurricane infested state. (However I would not live RIGHT on the coast.) So far I have survived. My home town, not that many years ago, had half of it totally wiped out by a tornado. Mother nature can sneak up on you anywhere. (I pay Homeowners ins., flood ins., and hurricane ins.)
That’s illuminating to see, all they are concerned about is insurance coverage.
Every time I check into a campground, I must give a phone number along with lots of other info. I have been through probably 8 major weather events, mostly tornados. Never ONCE did someone at a campground use that phone number they just had to have, to let campers know of a tornado warning, safe shelters, nor status of power outages, etc.
Frankly, once you leave your front door, whether walking, driving, or RV’ing, there is always some kind of risk. We don’t live in a ‘safety bubble’.
It is not just the RV industry that comes up short on disaster planning! Other than a few specialized agencies (hospitals, police and fire departments), most businesses and individuals have no plans, never even thought about disaster planning (it won’t happen to me attitude).
Ready for Hurricane season with my escape vehicle. It only looks like an RV.
Ready or not, your choice.
Most, maybe all, of the RV Parks, Resorts, and campgrounds we visit have the guest sign a waiver excusing the property owner of liability for any damage not caused by his or her negligence. I know we live in a world now where when something happens we want a pound of flesh and we don’t care where it comes from. But I believe the guest is on the hook. If you don’t like the conditions, rules, and waiver of liability move on down the road. If you accept all of these and something happens then you roll with it and keep on keeping on. That’s the RV way.
Yeah that’s not going to help someone who wants to put up a park not go bankrupt when they find out the hard way what happens to a park on the Florida soon to be ocean floor. Nor will it help someone who is from New York know what to do when a tornado happens. The very least they should do, even if it isn’t a law, is to provide safety brochures and have safety plans for common naturals disasters posted everywhere.
But hey, then it might be revealed that these parks are owned by a bank balance, not by a person with any familiarity with the park they actually own.