The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. has proposed a far-reaching new plan – one that includes mandatory flood insurance, IRA-like catastrophe accounts, subsidized premiums for homeowners and a federal reinsurance program – that it says would better protect coastal homeowners …
A new floodplain map under development for Cedar Rapids, Iowa, shows a levee on the Cedar River’s west bank was too low to protect large sections of the city from a 100-year flood. That’s despite the fact that the properties …
Only 12 percent of California homeowners currently own earthquake insurance policies, potentially leaving millions of Californians financially unprotected in the event of a catastrophic quake. Of the 12 percent of California’s homeowners that do have earthquake coverage, the California Earthquake …
Catastrophe risk specialist RMS says the insurance bill for damage from Hurricane Dolly, which hit Southwest Texas on July 23, may go as high as $750 million, while Boston-based AIR Worldwide estimates damages to come in between $350 million and …
The National Hurricane Center reported at 11 a.m. EDT on July 21 that Tropical Storm Dolly had crossed Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and entered the Gulf of Mexico. A hurricane watch was issued for the Texas coast from Brownsville northward to …
The National Flood Insurance Program owes the federal Treasury more than $17 billion from hurricane-related losses and has been unable to set aside enough money to meet catastrophic losses that could arise in the future, congressional investigators said in a …
Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said it does not expect the 2008 Midwest floods to impact ratings or outlooks for the majority of companies that it rates. However, property/casualty writers that are geographically concentrated in the affected states, especially those …
A combination of costs and confusion keeps many Iowans from buying federal flood insurance. Only about 1 percent of Iowans owned flood insurance when last month’s record flooding struck. More than 4,000 homes in Cedar Rapids were damaged or destroyed, …
One of the nation’s largest insurance companies is lobbying Congress for permission to sell policies that cover damage from both wind and flood water, a plan billed as a way for insurers and homeowners to avoid costly litigation after disasters …
The Importance of Understanding Flood Zones “I don’t need flood insurance.” “I’m not in a ‘flood zone.’” Or, “I don’t need flood insurance because my mortgage company said I don’t need it.” Those statements are made more often than any …
