David Millsaps wasn't at his home in Prosperity Thursday afternoon, but instead was cutting the grass at his mother's home in Columbia. He does what he can to keep both homes looking good and maintaining their value, including having insurance coverage.

But he wonders whether his insurance premiums here in South Carolina will be going up after insurance companies have to pay out billions in damages from Hurricane Katrina.

"You would think that's what they would have to do, unless they've done some awful good investments to cover everything," he says.

So are our insurance rates likely to go up because of the losses from Katrina? Allison Dean Love, director of the South Carolina Insurance News Service, says, "Hurricane Katrina by itself will not have a significant effect on the availability or cost of insurance in South Carolina."

As an example, she points out the fact that Florida had $23 billion in insured losses from hurricanes last year, but that didn't raise rates in South Carolina.

"However, it is clear that we have entered a period of more frequent, more intense hurricanes," she says. "The cumulative effect of these hurricanes requires insurers to make sure the price they charge for insurance coverage accurately reflects the future risk their customers face."

Insurance companies set your rates based on where you live, the type of home you have, its value and how close to a fire station it is, not on losses in other states.

But people who live on the coast, or who own property on the coast, here in South Carolina are paying more.

"There's been so much growth in South Carolina and so much more exposure for those insurance companies here in our state, that we are seeing our coastal homeowners paying a lot more for their insurance," Love says.

Katrina is also a good example of what three industry experts say is a growing problem. Their report, for the Ceres investors coalition, says weather-related insurance losses have increased fifteen-fold in the last thirty years.

“Insurance as we know it is threatened by a perfect storm of rising weather losses, rising global temperatures and more Americans than ever living in harm’s way,” said Mindy S. Lubber, president of Ceres, which commissioned the study. “Insurers and regulators have failed to adequately plan for these escalating weather events that scientists predict will intensify in the years ahead due to warming global temperatures.”

It should be noted that, besides investors, Ceres is also made up of environmental organizations.

The damage total from Katrina is still unknown, since so much of the area is still being assessed. Much of the damage in New Orleans is from flooding, which is not covered by regular homeowners' insurance policies.

Love says it's a reminder that homeowners should consider getting federal flood insurance, even if they don't live in an area that's as likely to flood as New Orleans.