Allstate expects insurance losses of about $593 million in August after Hurricane Harvey left a path of destruction along the Gulf Coast. The initial accounting Thursday follows warnings from other insurers that are tallying the damages from a hurricane season that is nowhere near being over.
Flooding and wildfires are making massive headlines this summer and this extreme weather risk is placing considerable pressure on the property insurance industry.
When the flood waters left behind by Hurricane Harvey eventually recede, they will leave behind billions of dollars in property damage. However, a large majority of homeowners will likely have to spend their own money to make their homes livable again.
Tropical Storm Harvey made landfall in Louisiana early on Wednesday after hammering Texas, threatening more infrastructure in the heart of the U.S. oil and natural gas industry.
Tropical Storm Harvey made a second landfall just west of Cameron, La., early Wednesday, although any flooding was expected to be nowhere near levels that have devastated this battered city, forecasters said.
Tornado and flash flood watches and warnings covered parts of southwest Louisiana as Harvey began dropping torrential rains on Louisiana. The National Weather Service radar for the Lake Charles area early Monday was lit up in orange and red where heavy rains from one of Harvey’s outer bands streamed from the Gulf of Mexico onto the Louisiana coast.
Current forecasts don’t put Louisiana in Hurricane Harvey’s direct path, but the storm is likely to send out waves of tropical rainfall over the next week that could douse New Orleans and surrounding areas. Exactly how much rain can we expect and when?
The remnants of what was once Tropical Storm Harvey will become a tropical storm or hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico and will bring dangerous flooding rain to areas near the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast into the weekend or early next week.
More than 800 flood claims have been filed in New Orleans, though that number might not represent all the damage from the Aug. 5 flood that was caused by an extreme rain event and failures with the city’s pumping system.
Louisiana’s governor declared a state of emergency in New Orleans on Thursday as the city’s malfunctioning water-pumping system and the threat of more rain left some neighborhoods at greater risk of flooding.
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.
A Desire neighborhood that sits in the shadow of a major Sewerage & Water Board pump station took on several feet of water during Saturday’s heavy rainstorm. The flood left people cleaning out their flooded cars and business owners trying to dry out and re-open.
A recall on papayas has been expanded to three brands, with more recalls possible, after the Food and Drug Administration narrowed in on the source of a salmonella outbreak that has been blamed for at least one death and has sickened over 100 more dating back to May.
A Louisiana man has been arrested for allegedly opening fire on an insurance adjuster who was taking photos of his property. Jefferson Parish sheriff’s deputies arrested Dewayne Snelling, 56, according to a report by the New Orleans Times-Picayune.
