Home insurance rates are going through the roof. Insurers are dropping hundreds of thousands of policies. The state-run insurer of last resort is deep in the red, and so is the state's hurricane catastrophe fund.

Nearly 14 years after Hurricane Andrew left Florida's insurance industry in tatters, the state is facing another crisis that, by many measures, is worse.

With only three weeks to go in the Florida legislative session, lawmakers are making a valiant effort to come up with fixes. A consumer group wants the state to be the windstorm insurer, and there are calls for a national catastrophe fund.

It's time for ''tough medicine,'' Senate President Tom Lee said.

Most remedies would mean higher costs for South Floridians already squeezed by soaring prices for gasoline and housing at a time when wages are stagnant.

For many homeowners in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, insurance bills have doubled in the past five years. In 2005, 41 companies requested rate hikes; so far this year, 10 insurers are seeking average increases of 20 percent to 92 percent.

''Right now, we have a crisis of affordability and availability,'' said Hialeah Sen. Rudy Garcia, who leads the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee.

Worried that homeowners may be forced to choose between insurance and other necessities, lawmakers have started to soften on using sales taxes generated by hurricane rebuilding efforts to help shore up Citizens Property Insurance, the state-run insurer that is estimating its 2005 deficit at $1.7 billion, and the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, a reserve for insurance companies that expects to be $1.35 billion in the red.

''This is not a bailout of Citizens, it is common-sense relief for Florida's hard-hit homeowners,'' said Tom Gallagher, Florida's chief financial officer.

Gov. Jeb Bush, who had been against the idea just a few weeks ago, is a supporter. Speaker of the House Allan Bense likens it to ''a tax cut'' for maxed-out homeowners.

Indeed, homeowners already are making up a $516 million shortfall for Citizens from the 2004 storms. That amounts to a 6.8 percent assessment -- or $68 per $1,000 of annual insurance premium.

To cover the 2005 losses, add another surcharge that could reach 20 percent. For a homeowner who has a $3,000 premium with any home insurer, the two surcharges could add up to an $804 hit.

As the House and Senate take up the insurance bills Monday, it's likely that lawmakers will ask for about $750 million of the extra revenue to go toward covering Citizens' deficit.

An additional $50 million could be set aside in a low-cost loan program to help Floridians fortify their homes against future storms.

Any relief for Florida homeowners is welcomed, but it isn't a cure-all.

The insurance industry is in such dire condition because the state was walloped by eight massive storms in a little more than 14 months. That sequence of punches wiped out insurers' capital.

The four hurricanes in 2004 racked up nearly $20 billion in claims paid by insurers. Last year, four more, including Hurricane Wilma, cost insurers almost $10 billion.

After the 2004 hurricanes, investors and parent companies added more than $1.2 billion to keep operations solvent for at least 17 Florida-based insurers, including Allstate Floridian, State Farm and Nationwide of Florida.

Now staring at the 2006 season, less than seven weeks away, some insurers are scrambling to shore up their finances yet again.

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