Each April, weather wizard William Gray emerges from his burrow deep in the Rocky Mountains to offer his forecast for the six-month hurricane season that starts June 1. And the news media are there, breathlessly awaiting his every word. It’s …
Living on a canal in Treasure Island, Fla., just six blocks from the Gulf of Mexico, Dennis and Martie Fagan don’t mess around when it comes to preparing for hurricane season. Around this time of year, they take stock of …
With hurricane season beginning June 1, Texans may be able to hold on to the hope that the odds are stacked for them. If historical experience for the past two decades holds true, Texas won’t see a hurricane hit its …
The nation’s annual forecast about how many hurricanes the Atlantic Ocean will churn up is now more like the daily weather report. Forecasters added probabilities to their 2008 report. It’s the same sort of caveat that television meteorologists use in …
With no Gulf Coast hurricane since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Alabama and Mississippi officials have worried that residents and tourists could become complacent about the seriousness of orders to flee the next disaster that strikes Gulf shores. Hurricane season begins …
The Louisiana Supreme Court on May 21 upheld a previous appeals court’s decision upholding the state’s “valued policy law” (VPL). The plaintiffs in Mark Landry and Barbara Landry V. Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Company lost their Vermilion Parish home during …
Texas Insurance Commissioner Mike Geeslin has approved the Texas Windstorm Association’s request for increased reinsurance for the 2008 hurricane season. TWIA, the state-backed “insurer of last resort”; for wind and hail for 14 counties along Texas’ Gulf Coast and for …
The Central Pacific Hurricane Center is predicting slightly fewer than normal tropical cyclones to develop in the Central Pacific basin during the upcoming season. Forecasters at National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s hurricane center expect three to four tropical cyclones, while during …
Florida residents could soon be faced with increased surcharges on their home, auto and other insurance policies because the state’s catastrophe fund needs more money to pay claims from past hurricanes. The Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund pays claims when insurers …
The credit crunch in the U.S. financial markets that boiled over after the subprime mortgage meltdown may affect the ability of insurers and reinsurers that cover coastal areas to raise cash for claims if a major hurricane were to strike …
