It’s been nine months since Hurricane Michael devastated the Florida Panhandle. But insurance companies still have yet to pay out more than 21,000 claims, state officials say.
It was a miracle. The Santa Rosa family home of Howard Booster survived the raging flame front that devoured nearly his entire neighborhood at about 4 a.m. on October 9, 2017, amid the Tubbs Fire, among the deadliest and most devastating infernos in California history.
Hurricane Barry has come and gone, and while the first hurricane to make landfall in the US this season didn’t wreak as much havoc as expected, there are still other storms slated to appear in the summer and fall.
A week after Hurricane Barry washed ashore, people everywhere have become expert weather forecasters. I realized this last Sunday after an irate caller told WWL Radio listeners the fake news media, meteorologists and public officials had conspired to deliver a doomsday forecast just to scare coastal residents.
Recent hurricane seasons have been vicious, last year’s killed more than a hundred people and inflicted more than $50 billion dollars in damages. The country is still deep in recovery and this year’s storm season is already underway.
Death and taxes may be life’s only two actual inevitabilities if you go by the old adage, but for risk managers and insurance claim professionals, hurricane season represents another sure thing. It isn’t “if,” it’s “when and how many?”
Storms of unprecedented power have lashed the U.S. and the Caribbean in recent years, leaving a trail of devastation estimated in the tens of billions of dollars. The U.S. alone has experienced 212 natural disasters since 1980 with the overall costs totaling $1.2 trillion, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA).
On a hot July evening last year, a rancher tried to use a hammer and stake to plug a wasp’s nest. The hammer slipped, a spark flew, and a patch of dry grass ignited, according to the Los Angeles Times. Within minutes, the brush fire fed on bone-dry conditions and became too big to control.
Insured commercial property losses from Missouri tornadoes in May reached $16.4 million as of June 30, with total insured losses expected to reach at least $139 million, the Missouri Department of Insurance, Financial Institutions & Professional Registration reported Thursday.
California’s insurance commissioner Ricardo Lara recently announced two new actions intended to help survivors of the state’s recent spate of catastrophic wildfires who are facing unavoidable delays in rebuilding.
Insured losses from the Memorial Day tornadoes have passed an estimated $550 million, and the tally is still underway to determine how many tornado-damaged properties were uninsured.
The cost of flood insurance claims continues to break records as lawmakers debate on the best way to reform the struggling National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), according to a recent analysis of federal data by E&E News.
With the Atlantic hurricane season underway, homeowners should be aware that inadequate insurance coverage can make recovering from a bad situation even worse.
