Latest Flood Headlines

All the headlines from our Flood Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Brown & Brown to Acquire Flood, Specialty Insurer The Wright Group

Jan 15 2014 // Florida-based national insurance broker Brown & Brown, Inc. has agreed to acquire The Wright Insurance Group, LLC for $602.5 million from Aquiline Capital Partners, Wright’s lead equity partner. The Wright...

Kmart’s Flood Damage Claims Against Kroger Going to Trial in Mississippi

Jan 15 2014 // A federal judge has denied a request from Kmart Corp. to file a corrected report on testimony of its engineering expert in a lawsuit over flood damage to one of its stores in Corinth. U.S. District Judge Glen Davidson...

Congressional Spending Plan Would Curb Some Flood Insurance Hikes

Jan 15 2014 // The $1.1 trillion government funding agreement unveiled by Congressional negotiators on Monday includes language to postpone for about eight months some of the flood insurance rate hikes triggered by reforms passed in...

Improvements Planned for Flood Walls in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Jan 14 2014 // Grand Rapids, Mich., plans to spend $4.2 million to repair and improve its floodwall system, after engineers identified weaknesses exposed by a storm last spring that flooded the Grand River threatened to swamp the...

70 Homes in Buffalo Suburb Damaged by Flooding

Jan 14 2014 // Residents in a suburban Buffalo neighborhood are dealing with the aftermath of weekend flooding that has left dozens of homes damaged. Local media outlets report that about 70 homes in West Seneca’s Lexington Green...

Vermont Officials Warn of Flooding Potential From Ice Jam

Jan 13 2014 // Vermont officials are warning of flooding potential in Montpelier due to an ice jam on the Winooski River. The Montpelier Emergency Management Team is monitoring a significant rise in water levels of the river’s...

Florida Panel Takes First Step To Creating Private Flood Market

Jan 13 2014 // With thousands of Florida residents facing dramatic increases in their flood insurance premiums, state lawmakers are preparing the groundwork for a private market option to premiums charged by the federal flood insurance...

Global Natural Disasters Cost Insurers $45B in 2013: Impact Forecasting

Jan 13 2014 // In 2013, there were 296 separate natural disaster events that produced total economic losses of $192 billion – four percent below the 10-year average of $200 billion, but above the average 259 events, according to a...

Flood Maps Still Wrong, Oregon Homeowners Still Paying

Jan 13 2014 // Months after Carol Justice was wrongly told her home needs flood insurance, the Cornelius resident is still paying up – even though a surveyor has since determined her house is not in the flood zone. Justice is one of...

Declarations

Jan 13 2014 // Free Speech Ripoff “This case is really important because businesses should not be able to silence their customers.” —Scott Michelman of nonprofit Public Citizen Litigation Group says the case of a Utah...

Groups Urge Congress to Target Flood Insurance Fix to Help Needy, Not Wealthy

Jan 9 2014 // Opponents of delaying Biggert-Waters flood insurance reforms and stopping the resulting premium hikes say the negative effects are being exaggerated and instead of gutting all of the reforms, Congress should target its...

Biden, Cuomo Team Up to Promote Smarter Rebuilding

Jan 8 2014 // Vice President Joe Biden and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday that New York and the nation’s other coastal states have to rebuild against severe storms and flooding that are likely in the...

Key Senate Vote on Flood Insurance Rate Delay Pushed to Next Week

Jan 7 2014 // The U.S. Senate is expected to take a key vote soon on a bill that would delay some of the flood insurance rate hikes triggered by the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012. The procedural vote will determine...

Munich Re’s Review of 2013 Cat Losses Focuses on Weather-Related Events

Jan 7 2014 // In its annual review of loss events in the past year, Munich Re emphasized the “exceptionally high losses from weather-related catastrophes in Europe and Supertyphoon Haiyan,” which, the report said,...

Roanoke, Va., Family Stays Afloat After Summer Floods

Jan 6 2014 // Joel Kirby loaded his young stepson Seth into his truck in the rain and headed over to the mall. “Despicable Me 2” was playing, and a movie on a damp summer night seemed like a good idea while his wife, Elisha,...

Northeast Digs Out From Major Winter Storm

Jan 3 2014 // The massive winter storm that impacted the Midwest and Northeast over the past couple of days is moving into the Atlantic on Friday, while very cold temperatures and dangerous wind chills are moving in behind the system,...

N.J. Sen. Menendez Calls on Congress to Delay Flood Insurance Rate Hikes

Jan 3 2014 // U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) on Thursday joined residents and local officials in Brick, N.J., to call on Congress to pass the Homeowner’s Flood Insurance Affordability Act. The bipartisan, bicameral bill,...

Flood Maps Still Wrong, Oregon Homeowners Still Paying

Jan 2 2014 // Months after Carol Justice was wrongly told her home needs flood insurance, the Cornelius resident is still paying up – even though a surveyor has since determined her house is not in the flood zone. Justice is one of...

In Shickshinny, Penn., Flood-Buyout Program to Continue Through 2014

Jan 2 2014 // Donald Hargraves is flooded with nostalgia when he drives past the Shickshinny, Penn., home he owned for more than five decades but doesn’t regret recently selling the property in a flood-buyout program. “I...

Louisiana Judge Ends Katrina Flooding Lawsuits Against Feds

Dec 30 2013 // Dozens of lawsuits seeking damages from the federal government for Hurricane Katrina-related levee failures and flooding in the New Orleans area are over. U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval Jr. has dismissed the cases. The...