Tuesday’s midterm Election Day is filled with fascinating races coast to coast — from the Florida gubernatorial contest to the Texas Senate race, with control of Congress hanging in the balance. Not as many people are paying attention to the expected turnover among state insurance commissioners.

Georgia Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens announced Wednesday afternoon that reported insured losses tied to Hurricane Michael have hit $696 million.

Claims activity from Hurricane Michael, which came ashore Oct. 10 as a Category 4 storm, is in full swing almost two weeks later, industry sources said.

U.S. homebuilding dropped more than expected in September as construction activity in the South fell by the most in nearly three years, likely held down by Hurricane Florence.

Lucrative crops that account for about $2 billion of the Georgia economy were completely destroyed as a result of Hurricane Michael, Southern Living reports.
According to the Georgia Department of Agriculture, 5 percent of pecan crops, 15 percent of cotton crops, 30 percent of vegetables, and 50 percent of peanuts had already been harvested.

Mexico Beach, Florida, is not just destroyed. For the most part, it’s not there anymore.
From a helicopter, you can see many of the homes and hotels that populated this beachside town of about 1,200 are gone. A few houses and other structures remain standing, but they’re the exceptions.

Much of the damage to homes from Hurricane Michael will be paid by an array of small, little-known insurers, backed up by larger reinsurance companies around the globe.
Florida is an oddball insurance market for homeowners, where household-name companies like State Farm and Allstate Corp. don’t have the outsize roles they do in other states.

Hurricane Michael’s torrential rain, storm surge, and hurricane-force maximum sustained winds that reached 140 miles per hour Wednesday could result in a historically devastating event for the northeastern Gulf Coast, according to A.M. Best.

At the headquarters for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a few hundred people are already coordinating the response to Hurricane Michael.
"It’s doing exactly what the forecasters were pushing forward — storm surges, you’re seeing the ocean rise," said FEMA Administrator Brock Long.

As Tropical Storm Michael moves through Georgia and into South Carolina, its effects are being seen far and wide across the southern United States.

The remnants of Hurricane Michael — the most powerful storm on record to strike Florida’s Panhandle — swept through Georgia on Thursday on a path toward the Carolinas after leaving widespread destruction and at least two deaths in its wake.

In little more than a day, a Category 1 storm became a “worst-case scenario” Category 4. The already bad 2018 hurricane season has gotten even worse.
On Wednesday afternoon, Hurricane Michael became the second major storm to make landfall this year. Michael is an incredibly dangerous, history-making storm, bringing catastrophic high winds and deadly storm surge to Florida’s Panhandle.

Hurricane Michael made landfall Wednesday on the Florida Panhandle with winds of 155 miles per hour. A hurricane reaches Category 5 status when winds reach 157 miles per hour.

Hurricane Michael hit the Florida Panhandle with frightening fury.

The Category 4 storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 155 mph as it made landfall near Mexico Beach.

Hurricane Michael rapidly gained strength in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico Tuesday night and continued to intensify Wednesday morning, threatening to become the most intense hurricane on record to strike the Florida Panhandle. The dangerous Category 4 hurricane has winds up to 145 mph, and is predicted to make landfall Wednesday afternoon.