Latest Texas Headlines
All the headlines from our Texas Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Waiting Period Suspended for Harvey-Related Claim Payouts for Totaled Vehicles
Sep 13 2017 // Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has suspended a state statute in ordered to help facilitate the payment of insurance claims for vehicles that were totaled by Hurricane Harvey, the governor’s office said. Abbott temporarily...
Texas Mutual Creates $10M Fund for Policyholders Affected by Hurricane Harvey
Sep 13 2017 // Workers’ compensation insurance provider Texas Mutual Insurance Co. has established a grant of $10 million to policyholders affected by Hurricane Harvey. The grant program is intended to support the recovery of...
U.S. Investigating Arkema’s Safety Practices After Texas Fires
Sep 13 2017 // The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is investigating whether chemical maker Arkema SA followed safety rules at its Crosby, Texas, plant where chemical containers exploded and burned for days after flooding from...
U.S. Flood Insurance Program Expects $11B in Texas Flood Payouts
Sep 13 2017 // U.S. officials estimate the FEMA-run National Flood Insurance Program will make $11 billion in payments for flooding in Texas caused by Hurricane Harvey, the program’s administrator Roy Wright said. Additionally, in...
Texas GOP Leaders Push for Expensive, Long-Delayed Flood Infrastructure Projects
Sep 12 2017 // In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is calling for the construction of flood control infrastructure in the Houston area — things he said should have been built “decades and decades...
Martin Joins Myron F. Steves and Co. in San Antonio
Sep 12 2017 // Paul Martin has joined Texas-based independent MGA and wholesaler, Myron F. Steves and Co., as director of Education and Development. He will also oversee the company’s operations in San Antonio. Martin most recently...
Insurers Rush to Find, Deploy Adjusters for Harvey, Irma Claims
Sep 11 2017 // Insurers are scrambling to find inspectors in Texas and Florida after fierce hurricanes battered the states one after the other, causing tens of billions of dollars’ worth of property damage in less than two...
Riley Named Texas Workers’ Comp Deputy Commissioner of Compliance, Investigations
Sep 11 2017 // The Texas Division of Workers’ Compensation has hired Timothy P. Riley as the division’s new deputy commissioner of Compliance and Investigations. Riley most recently served as vice president of Special...
Chemical Fallout from Hurricane Irma Could Be Worse than Harvey’s
Sep 8 2017 // Before flames and smoke leaped into the sky over the Arkema chemical plant in Crosby, Texas, last week, Jolyn Masters was hunkered down at home on a Hurricane Harvey-flooded street a mile away. Then came a knock. A...
Rethinking Freight Flood Risk Management After Hurricane Harvey
Sep 8 2017 // A week before Hurricane Harvey walloped Houston, workers for Union Pacific Corp. began moving rail cars out of the railroad’s Englewood switching yard near downtown and brought in enough generators to fill 70 tractor...
Tackling Houston’s Flood-Damaged Cars Takes an Army of Tow Trucks
Sep 8 2017 // How do you remove hundreds of thousands of damaged cars from a massive city still mired in water and muck? Tow-truck driver Alex Toll will tell you: one vehicle at a time. Toll is part of an army of more than 1,000 tow...
Texas Finalist Named 2017 National Outstanding CSR
Sep 8 2017 // Brianne Head, director of Client Services for Independent Insurance Group Inc., in Dallas, Texas, has received the 2017 National Outstanding CSR of the Year Award from the Society of Certified Insurance Service...
New Texas Task Force Formed to Investigate Hurricane-Related Fraud
Sep 8 2017 // Federal prosecutors will lead a new Houston-based group created to help law enforcement agencies respond to an inevitable wave of fraud and other criminal activity set off by Harvey’s punishing rains. Authorities are...
SWBC Insurance Services Expands into Kerrville, Texas, Office
Sep 7 2017 // SWBC Insurance Services, based in San Antonio, has expanded its division to Kerrville, Texas. Agent Nicole Shuler will be based in Kerrville to provide personal and business insurance to members of the community. Shuler...
AIR Worldwide Estimates $65B – $75B in Texas Property Damage from Harvey Flooding
Sep 7 2017 // Boston-based catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide has estimated property losses from the flooding in Texas caused by Hurricane Harvey’s record-breaking rainfall will be between $65 billion and $75 billion. These...
First Harvey Lawsuit Filed to Beat New Texas Tort Reform Law
Sep 6 2017 // Late in the afternoon on Aug. 31, a Dallas law firm filed a lawsuit to circumvent a new Texas law that went into effect on Friday, Sept. 1. The newly passed law, HB1774, was meant to curb hail lawsuit abuse, but after...
Relief Slow for Small Texas Coastal Towns Recovering from Harvey
Sep 6 2017 // Some shoreline communities in Texas that bore the brunt of Hurricane Harvey still need clean water, electricity and health care more than a week after the winds and rain subsided. Locals in Port Aransas, Seadrift and...
Hurricane Irma Brings Fierce Winds, Surf and Rain to Caribbean Islands
Sep 6 2017 // Hurricane Irma, one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in a century, churned across northern Caribbean islands on Wednesday with a potentially catastrophic mix of fierce winds, surf and rain, en route to a possible...
Florida in State of Emergency as Category 5 Hurricane Irma Threatens
Sep 5 2017 // Florida declared a state of emergency before a possible hurricane strike after Irma strengthened to become a Category 5 storm on its approach to the Caribbean. Irma’s maximum winds rose as high as 175 miles an hour...
Hurricane Harvey Puts Pressure on Regional Insurers in Texas, Says A.M. Best
Sep 5 2017 // Losses anticipated from Hurricane Harvey are unlikely to exceed the top reinsurance limits of insurers writing business in Texas, according to new Best’s Special Report, titled, “Texas Insurers Expected to...
