Flood - Latest Insurance News

West Virginia Court Reinstates Damages Against City for Flooding

Nov 17 2014 // The West Virginia Supreme Court has ordered the restoration of monetary damages to Huntington homeowners hit by flooding in 2011. The high court ruled in an appeal brought by five plaintiffs along Krouts Creek, The...

NYC Flood Zone Properties Worth $129B Under New FEMA Maps

Nov 17 2014 // The assessed value of properties in New York City that lie within Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) newly proposed 100-year floodplain maps is $129.1 billion, more than double the value under previous...

North Atlantic Hurricanes Can Have Big Impact in the Midwest

Nov 13 2014 // Located hundreds of miles inland from the nearest ocean, the Midwest is unaffected by North Atlantic hurricanes. Or is it? With the Nov. 30 end of the 2014 hurricane season just weeks away, a University of Iowa researcher...

New York Rivers Getting New Flood Gauges

Nov 12 2014 // Areas along the Hudson, Mohawk and Oswego rivers will soon have new flood gauges to warn of possible floods. U.S. senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand announced on Nov. 7 that the Federal Emergency Management...

Katrina, Rita Flood Settlement Letters Mailed Out in Louisiana

Nov 11 2014 // Letters are going out this week to residents and businesses in New Orleans, St. Bernard Parish and the east bank of Jefferson Parish notifying them they could receive payments ranging from $1 to $463 for flood damage...

Austin Still Recovering From 2013 Halloween Floods

Nov 3 2014 // A year after a flood killed three people and damaged hundreds of central Texas homes, Austin officials are still working to buy and tear down houses considered at risk for flooding. The 2013 Halloween floods, which reached...

2 Small Players Settle in Louisiana ‘Big Oil’ Coastal Flooding Suit

Nov 3 2014 // Two of the smaller players in a New Orleans area flood board’s lawsuit against the oil industry over damage to the state’s coast have agreed to a settlement. An attorney for the Southeast Louisiana Flood...

2 Years After Sandy: Sea Bright, N.J., Prepares for Next Big Storm

Oct 30 2014 // Sea Bright, New Jersey, is a great example of how difficult it is to truly prepare a Jersey shore community for the next big storm. The low-lying community on a narrow strip of sand between the ocean and the Shrewsbury...

California Drought Bad Tidings for Rice Harvest

Oct 30 2014 // California’s deepening drought is shrinking its rice harvest, and that’s bad news for farmers, migratory birds and sushi lovers. The $5 billion industry exports rice to more than 100 countries and specializes...

NYC Flood Zone Properties’ Value Rose to $129B Under New FEMA Maps

Oct 29 2014 // The assessed value of properties in New York City that lie within Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) newly proposed 100-year floodplain maps is $129 billion, more than double the value under previous...

Human Factor, Culture Often Overlooked in Climate Debate, Expert Says

Oct 29 2014 // When Hurricane Sandy came, Deborah Star Reed stayed home. Irene, the year before, had been over- hyped. Her 1919 concrete house in New York was left unscathed by Donna in 1960 and the “Big One” of 1938. So, on...

2 Years After Superstorm Sandy: Are We Ready for Next Big Storm?

Oct 27 2014 // After Superstorm Sandy, officials in New York and New Jersey vowed to make sure the unprecedented destruction wouldn’t happen again. Two years later, would it? There are some concrete signs of tougher protections,...

Report on Infrastructure Upgrades Since Superstorm Sandy

Oct 27 2014 // Two years after Superstorm Sandy, would New York and New Jersey be better protected and prepared if such a storm struck again? A sampling of work on some key issues: • Flood Protection New York City: Many projects on the...

Carpenter Report Details Impact of 2004 & 2005 Hurricane Seasons

Oct 27 2014 // Guy Carpenter & Company released Part II of the two-part Ten-Year Retrospective of the 2004 and 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Seasons. Part II focuses on the 2005 hurricane season and the cumulative effects of both the 2004...

Rule Addresses Lenders’ Flood Insurance Escrowing, Mandate Exemptions

Oct 27 2014 // Five federal regulatory agencies are seeking comment on a proposed rule pertaining to loans secured by property located in special flood hazard areas. The rule, part of a broader proposal first offeerd last October, would...

Marsh to Acquire Flood Insurance Technology Firm Torrent

Oct 20 2014 // Insurance broker Marsh has agreed to acquire Torrent Technologies Inc., which serves Write Your Own (WYO) insurers participating in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Torrent’s approximately 100 employees...

High-Tide Floods to Triple for Some East Coast Cities: UCS

Oct 20 2014 // Flooding during high tides, which used to be rare, is now common in some places and could worsen to the point that sections of coastal cities may flood so often they would become unusable in the near future, according to a...

NJ Transit Sues Insurers Over Sandy Losses, Seeks $300M

Oct 20 2014 // New Jersey Transit, the nation’s third-largest bus, rail and light rail transportation provider, is suing several excess insurers to recoup additional $300 million for Superstorm Sandy losses. NJ Transit says its...

N.J. Regulator: 99.4% of Non-Flood Sandy Claims Settled

Oct 20 2014 // Ken KobylowskiNew Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance Commissioner Ken Kobylowski said that among the 470,281 non-flood, Superstorm Sandy-related homeowners, automobile and commercial claims that were filed in New...

High-Tide Floods to Triple for Some Coastal Cities