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Who knew?

While it might have been generally assumed that the adage, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going,” meant that resilient sorts took action in difficult times, it now comes to light that it really means that when trouble looms, the insensitive leave.

At least that’s the interpretation that can be ascribed to homeowners insurance companies, which are beating it out of Florida, thanks to a couple of busy hurricane seasons.

The concept of insurance has been described as betting against yourself.

You pay premiums on the chance that if something bad happens, you’ll have some money coming in to cover the costs.

Over a period of years, you and thousands of others send in regular payments to the insurance company knowing that catastrophe isn’t going to hit each and every one of you. Those who do get hit will be compensated. Those that don’t will subsidize that compensation. The insurance company makes money by investing the payments wisely until payouts are required. If few claims are made, the company stands to make even more money.

Of late, homeowners insurance companies are changing the equation.

Two unusually active hurricane seasons have forced the insurance companies to shell out billions in claims. Rather than pay up and continue to collect premiums, the companies are abandoning their clients, many of whom are required to have insurance due to their mortgages.

Nationwide is just one of the companies to drop least a portion of its Florida clients, a process it euphemistically calls “non-renewal.”

In a June letter to policyholders Gerald and Gloria Guldin of East Naples, Cathy Allocco, Nationwide underwriting product officer, wrote, “We have the responsibility to ensure long-term financial stability in order to pay future claims. With this in mind we have determined the potential property loss from severe hurricanes in Florida is too high and we have had to make the difficult decision to reduce our number of property policies.”

The letter was accompanied by documents explaining that Nationwide paid out more than $1 billion in hurricane claims in 2004 and 2005. Nowhere does it mention how much the company collected from its more than 200,000 Florida clients over the years leading up to the two-year run of bad luck. If each customer had spent $1,000 a year in premiums over 10 years, the company would have taken in more than $2 billion.

The documents also detail the methodology used by the company to decide which properties to drop. It talks about total value, physical location and construction type.

But the Guldin property, as an example, didn’t suffer enough damage in Hurricane Wilma last year for the family to bother putting in a claim, Gloria Guldin said.

The letter to the Guldins cheerily explains that the company will still offer auto insurance and other products. How much do you want to bet if a ring of car thieves hit Florida with the ferocity of the last two years’ hurricanes, Nationwide would start “non-renewing,” those policies, too?

“It sounds like an insurance scam to me,” Gloria Guldin said.

Nationwide’s supporting documents say experts predict 20 to 30 years of frequent hurricanes.

The company that boasts, “Nationwide — On your side,” Ought to consider adopting another adage as its slogan. “Nationwide — Git while the gittin’s good.”

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E-mail Brent Batten at bebatten@naplesnews.com