Latest Hurricane Headlines

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

Most Texas Insurers Profited Despite Hurricane Rita

Mar 24 2006 // Texas home insurers turned substantial profits last year despite Hurricane Rita’s destruction, prompting state regulators to question whether some companies’ rates are too high, the Associated Press...

Risk Management Solutions Predicts Hurricane Activity to Increase Losses by 40 Percent in Florida and Gulf Coast

Mar 23 2006 // Risk Management Solutions, Newark, Calif., expects increases in hurricane landfall frequencies will increase modeled annualized insurance losses by 40 percent on average across the Gulf Coast, Florida and the Southeast,...

La. Commissioner Working to Generate Cat Bond Funding for State

Mar 23 2006 // The Louisiana Department of Insurance reported that Commissioner of Insurance Jim Donelon was invited to meet with the nation’s largest bond insurers and bond rating agencies in New York recently in a continued...

Aon Re Issues Global Study on Customer Catastrophe Segmentation

Mar 22 2006 // Aon Re Inc. has published the results of a study of companies that have implemented more sophisticated customer segmentation strategies over the past few years. The report concludes that overall returns for the personal...

Fla. Lawmaker Pushes Hurricane Insurance Surcharges for Vacation Homes

Mar 22 2006 // Owners of vacation and second homes would be slapped with a 25 percent surcharge on policies obtained from the state’s insurer of last resort under a proposal unveiled by a Senate committee chairman. That’s one...

Texas Governor Issues Order on Hurricane Evacuation Procedures

Mar 22 2006 // Texas Gov. Rick Perry issued an executive order that implements most of the recommendations of the Task Force on Evacuation Transportation and Logistics. “Our goal is to learn from the lessons that Hurricane Rita...

Volunteer Helping in Hurricane-Damaged Home Finds $30K

Mar 22 2006 // A college student was spending her spring break cleaning out hurricane-damaged homes in New Orleans when she discovered some unusual papers among the moldy plasterboard and debris, the Associated Press reported. “I...

Alabama Residents Fear the Worst, Prepare for Next Hurricane Season

Mar 22 2006 // A survey of residents in Alabama’s two coastal counties found many expect this hurricane season will be as bad or worse than last year, and they are making preparations, including buying generators. Forty percent of...

‘Long Overdue’ Northeast Warned to Prepare for ‘Historic’ Weather Disaster This Year

Mar 22 2006 // The northeast U.S. coast could be the target of a major hurricane, perhaps as early as this season, according to the AccuWeather.com Hurricane Center. The weather experts say this year could bring the Northeast a storm...

$1.5B paid on more than 180K Rita claims

Mar 20 2006 // The Insurance Council of Texas reported that insurance companies have settled 90 percent of property claims in Texas that resulted from the devastation caused by Hurricane Rita that struck in late September 2005. According...

La. directives aim for more consumer protection

Mar 20 2006 // Louisiana Commissioner of Insurance Jim Donelon issued two directives designed to further protect consumers impacted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Directives 195 and 196 extend the time period for the repair of damaged...

Fla. Insurance Council to push mitigation efforts

Mar 20 2006 // With more than $30 billion in claims over the past two hurricane seasons in Florida, the Florida Insurance Council has announced it will ask lawmakers now meeting in Tal-lahassee to support mitigation efforts to combat the...

72 days and counting until 2006 hurricane season

Mar 20 2006 // Legislators are meeting across the Southeast to discuss a wide variety of insurance issues: Proposals in Florida would designate hurricane tax revenue to help pay for hurricane repairs; there are a dozen proposals in...

Scruggs: Whistleblower Helping in Hurricane Katrina Lawsuit

Mar 20 2006 // A high-profile litigator in Moss Point, Miss. said that a whistleblower is helping him build a case against insurers that allegedly denied thousands of claims from policyholders whose homes were destroyed in Hurricane...

Hurricane fatigue

Mar 20 2006 // One decried a system in which wealthy waterfront property owners are being subsidized by less affluent property owners and taxpayers: “If the state is going to continue to attract new residents, it will have to make...

Earthquakes, floods and wildfires … oh my!

Mar 20 2006 // “First and foremost, have some sort of plan. It doesn’t have to be a million dollar plan for the smaller operators but communication needs to be spelled out.” – David Losson In the wake of Hurricane...

Legislators hear insurance industry’s resounding voice after the storm

Mar 20 2006 // Sound, up-to-date and successful building codes are essential for construction, but codes must also be enforced and continuously updated to effectively contribute to disaster mitigation, said Leonard C. Brevik, National...

Federal Bureau of Investigation targeting insurance fraud

Mar 20 2006 // The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been accumulating insurance fraud information since Hurricane Katrina and has filed charges in five cases, R. Allyson Delaney, an FBI analyst in Clarksburg, W.Va., told the National...

Fla. Insurance Council to push mitigation efforts

Mar 19 2006 // FIC supports efforts to strengthen the Florida Uniform Statewide Building Code by requiring shutters, impact-resistant glass or other opening protections on all new construction where winds of 120 miles or greater have...

News Currents

Mar 19 2006 // Berkshire’s Buffett still high on insurance despite catastrophe risk Gen Re misfortunes overcome by Geico’s stellar performance, Buffett says Warren E. Buffett, the billionaire chairman of giant Berkshire...