Latest Florida Headlines

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

Setback in Zika Fight: Virus Found in New Miami Neighborhood

Oct 17 2016 // Health officials announced Thursday a new Zika zone in Miami – a setback less than a month after declaring the nearby Wynwood neighborhood cleared of the virus following aggressive mosquito spraying. Five people have...

Hurricane Matthew May Be Gone, But Insurance Industry’s Work is Just Starting

Oct 14 2016 // It’s been nearly a week since Hurricane Matthew ravaged the Southeast coast but the insurance industry’s job of responding to the devastation and assessing the total cost of damage from the storm is just...

Residents in Areas Not Hard Hit by Matthew Question Evacuation Orders

Oct 12 2016 // Maureen Miller was among the 2 million people ordered to evacuate coastal areas in the Southeast ahead of Hurricane Matthew. Her family and their dog spent two nights in a hotel and struggled through police roadblocks to...

North Carolina Prepares for More Flooding in Wake of Matthew

Oct 11 2016 // Anthony Writebol, left, and his cousin, Melissa Hill paddle past a stranded tractor trailer on Hwy 211 in Lumberton, N.C., Sunday, Oct. 9, 2016. They were heading to meet friends who were going to let them stay after their...

Dentons Hires Sarchio to Insurance Regulatory Practice in New York and Florida

Oct 11 2016 // Global law firm Dentons has named John J. Sarchio as a partner in its insurance regulatory practice. In this role, he will advise clients on insurance industry mergers, acquisitions and financings, reinsurance...

Giordano Joins Florida-Based DUAL North America as Non-Executive Director

Oct 11 2016 // DUAL North America has announced that Jim Giordano will join the company as a non-executive director. The company said in this role Giordano will contribute to the DUAL Board in areas relating to corporate strategy,...

It’s Official: Florida Workers’ Comp Rates Going Up Nearly 15%

Oct 11 2016 // The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) has issued a final order granting approval to the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) for an overall combined statewide average rate increase of 14.5 percent....

Matthew Update: 1 Million Still Without Power; Death Toll Rises

Oct 10 2016 // Almost 1 million customers were still without power in the U.S. Southeast Monday after Hurricane Matthew brought devastating wind gusts and flooding to North Carolina, leaving at least 10 dead in the state. Duke Energy...

Citizens Warns Florida Policyholders of AOB Scams in Wake of Hurricane Matthew

Oct 10 2016 // Citizens Property Insurance Corp. is urging its policyholders to call Citizens first to report losses following Hurricane Matthew in order to protect themselves from assignment of benefit (AOB) scams, according to a...

Hurricane Matthew Smashed Haiti Villages; Death Count Near 900

Oct 9 2016 // Hurricane Matthew killed almost 900 people and displaced tens of thousands in Haiti before plowing northward on Saturday just off the southeast U.S. coast where it caused major flooding and widespread power outages. The...

Forecasters Lower Matthew Loss Estimates

Oct 9 2016 // On Friday, a catastrophe modeling firm slashed its estimate for insurance losses from Hurricane Matthew on Friday, as the storm skirted Florida but failed to make landfall. Kinetic Analysis had estimated the insured losses...

Catastrophe Bonds Fell Most in 4 Years on Hurricane Matthew Risk

Oct 9 2016 // Bonds tied to weather risks tumbled the most in four years as Hurricane Matthew lashed Florida. The Swiss Re Cat Bond Price Return Index dropped 1.7 percent last week, the steepest decline since Superstorm Sandy in 2012....

Florida Coast Clean Up After Matthew Underway

Oct 9 2016 // Joan Galasso walked through the empty wreck of the waterfront seafood restaurant she and her husband started a quarter-century ago and was horrified. Hurricane Matthew had ripped away the deck where tourists had gathered...

Matthew Death Toll in Southeast Rises

Oct 9 2016 // More than 1.5 million people are still without power as Matthew on Sunday brought Hurricane-force wind gusts and flooding to the outer banks of North Carolina, where the storm left at least seven dead. Almost 423,000 homes...

Hurricane Matthew More Hype Than Bite So Far But Insurers, Agents Remain on Alert

Oct 7 2016 // While Hurricane Matthew rages along Florida’s coast, with the end potentially still hours away, the insurance industry seems to be breathing a sigh of relief, thus far. As of Friday morning, Matthew seemed to have...

Fitch: Matthew Losses Manageable for Florida Property Insurers

Oct 7 2016 // Hurricane Matthew will pressure the earnings of some insurance underwriters in Florida and other southeast states but is not expected to present a major capital challenge, Fitch Ratings says. Fitch estimates that if the...

Florida Gov: Some 600,000 Florida Homes Without Power Due to Hurricane

Oct 7 2016 // About 600,000 Florida homes were without power on Friday due to Hurricane Matthew and more outages were likely, Governor Rick Scott told a news conference, as the storm moved near the state’s Atlantic coast on a...

Hurricane Matthew Forces Millions to Evacuate Along Southeast Coast

Oct 7 2016 // Millions of people in the U.S. southeast were ordered to flee as Hurricane Matthew, set to become the strongest storm to hit the country since 2005, headed toward Florida’s East Coast after leaving hundreds dead in...

Hurricane Matthew Heads to Florida; Losses Could Reach $15 Billion

Oct 6 2016 // Hurricane Matthew has thousands fleeing the U.S. Southeast where it’s expected to batter the coastline and threaten electricity supplies to more than 1 million people in Florida. Potential losses are seen as high as...

Florida Approves 97K Policies for December Take-Outs from Citizens

Oct 6 2016 // The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) has approved a total of 97,390 policies for December take-outs from Citizens Property Insurance Corporation by the following companies. December 20, 2016 Personal...