It Figures

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Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe declared 13 counties state disaster areas due to the damage caused by powerful tornadoes and violent thunderstorms on Feb. 5. The counties are Baxter, Conway, Franklin, Independence, Izard, Marion, Newton, Pope, Randolph, Sharp, Stone, Union and Van Buren, the governor’s office reported. Damage in Arkansas was the result of a front that brought a series of strong tornadoes that moved across Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas, causing extensive damage and killing at least 48. According to the Arkansas Insurance Department as of Feb. 7, there was one confirmed fatality in Baxter County, two confirmed fatalities in Conway County, two confirmed fatalities in Izard County, four confirmed fatalities in Pope County, one confirmed fatality in Stone County, and three confirmed fatalities in Van Buren County as a result of the storms. In addition, multiple injuries were reported across the affected areas. The town of Gassville in Baxter County was among the hardest hit. The insurance department estimated that 75 percent of the town suffered heavy damage.

$72 Million

Oklahoma will receive $2.5 million of the $72 million in Martin Frankel’s assets seized by the Internal Revenue Service and Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland. Frankel defrauded seven insurance companies in five different states of more than $200 million, then fled the United States in 1999. He was later arrested and returned to the U.S., where he pleaded guilty to insurance fraud, racketeering and money laundering, and was sentenced to nearly 17 years in federal prison. Frankel’s assets were seized and sold, and the resulting funds placed in forfeiture accounts, which were recently ordered to be turned over to the receivers of the insolvent insurance companies. Including the $2.5 million received from the forfeiture, Holland has recovered a total of more than $3.8 million in the Frankel case.

$4.1 Billion

The Bush Administration has proposed a budget of $4.1 billion for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for the coming year. The NOAA budget includes millions in funding to improve hurricane forecasts and further research the storms, a federal official said at a recent regional discussion of the budget. The money would be used to improve hurricane forecast modeling, including predicting how rapidly storms intensify and dissipate, as well as to upgrade and deploy ocean buoys that gather information about the storms. Approximately $5 million would go to improving forecast models and another $6 million to deploying and maintaining the buoys. Separately, the budget also includes a request for $242 million to support the next generation of geostationary satellites.

Topics Arkansas