As heavy rain and gusty winds move in over Texas, coastal residents are deciding whether to flee their homes or to stay put and brace for a potentially life-threatening hurricane.

Texans are filling sandbags, stocking up on water and boarding up windows ahead of Tropical Storm Harvey, a system that could develop into a hurricane by Friday.

Hurricane Andrew struck Florida on August 24, 1992, and the upheaval the Category 5 storm created for the property insurance market remains a reminder of the necessity of managing risk and striving for resiliency in the nation’s most disaster-prone state, according to the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.).

Almost 25 years have passed since a Category 5 hurricane struck south of Miami, and the city’s vulnerability to catastrophic storm damage has grown exponentially, according to a new insurance underwriters’ analysis.

Today NOAA issued the scheduled update for its 2017 hurricane season outlook. Forecasters are now predicting a higher likelihood of an above-normal season, and they increased the predicted number of named storms and major hurricanes. The season has the potential to be extremely active, and could be the most active since 2010.

Citizens Property Insurance Corp. has found another 315 claims adjusters to deploy after the next major hurricane — hopefully reducing long waits for customers who will be eager to get paid and start making repairs.

New data out Friday from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows that there have been nine extreme weather events — each racking up more than $1 billion in losses — during the first half of 2017. An average year between 1980 and 2016 had just 5.5 major events, after adjusting for inflation.

Dick Seitz (Class of ’61) and his Cathedral High School buddies were at Mama’s Pizza on Saddle Creek Road on Thursday evening last week, telling stories of the old days, when they heard what sounded like firecrackers outside. The noise actually came from hailstones, some as big as 4 inches in diameter.

Beginning on Wednesday, trained staff from the New York State Department of Financial Services will be on hand in Rensselaer County to help those affected by the serious flooding.

Private U.S. property casualty insurers suffered $7.3 billion in catastrophe losses during the 2017 first quarter, the worst such quarter since the 1994 earthquake in Northridge, California, a data company and trade group said on Monday.

The wind over the canal stirred up whitecaps and rattled cafe umbrellas. Rowers strained toward a finish line and spectators hugged the shore.

Ariana Grande’s promoter is facing an estimated payout of £300,000 following the cancellation of several tour dates due to last month’s terrorist attack at Manchester Arena.

A record year for catastrophic disasters, from the Fort McMurray fire to floods in Quebec, have put Canadian home insurers to the test in 2017. According to the J.D. Power 2017 Canadian Home Insurance Study, a spike in major claims has created significant challenges for insurance carriers.

Nearly 6.9 million homes along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts in the United States are at potential risk of damage from hurricane storm surge inundation, according to CoreLogic’s 2017 Storm Surge Report.

There was no air conditioning and parts of the roof were gone, so the mosquitoes would swarm in on those hellishly hot nights. People had their guns ready for the looters. There were also monkeys, llamas, cougars and who knows what else roaming around.