Another big Florida property insurer is dropping customers to reduce its storm risk statewide — Nationwide Insurance said Tuesday it plans to dump 39,000 homeowner insurance policies, including 6,200 in Palm Beach County and 2,000 in Broward County.

Two years ago, Nationwide began jettisoning 35,000 homeowner policies statewide and stopped taking on new property insurance customers. The company will finish the earlier round of policy cuts by mid-2008.

Earlier this year, State Farm Florida Insurance Co. and Allstate Floridian Insurance Co. said they were shedding 156,000 policies following busy hurricane seasons in 2004 and 2005.

The Nationwide policy cuts will be made on customer renewal dates and start early next year, so affected homeowners can continue their coverage through the Nov. 30 end of hurricane season. The first notices alerting policy holders will go out in September.

The Columbus, Ohio-based insurer, the fifth-largest in Florida, also is dropping 1,600 commercial policies statewide but did not have a breakdown Tuesday of the cuts by county.

“It goes without saying that this is a difficult business decision, but one we need to make to continue to be there for our remaining customers,” spokesman Eric Hardgrove said.

The announcement is yet another blow to Florida’s reeling property insurance market.

Insurers have started leaving Florida