This year's relatively tame hurricane season in Florida has not quelled the fears of a small group of people in St. Petersburg. For two years they have been sounding a wake-up call of impending financial disaster should a major storm hit Florida.

In November 2006, distressed by rates and capacity in the homeowners' market and critical of the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund's (Cat Fund) operations, former state legislator and insurance agency owner Don Crane and eight other executives began searching for a solution.

Their idea: the establishment of an independent state entity they have named the Florida Reinsurance Corporation (FRC). The state-owned entity would manage all hurricane coverage in Florida, handled much like the federal flood insurance program through private insurers, but with the funds from all windstorm premiums collected held by the state. The Cat Fund would be morphed into this exclusive insurer of Florida's hurricane risk.