STORM DAMAGE
Ike toll on county homes $8.5 billion
By MIKE SNYDER
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Oct. 20, 2008, 11:13PM
Hurricane Ike caused about $8.5 billion in damage to Harris County houses, apartments and mobile homes, according to a preliminary estimate being released today.
The report by the Harris County Housing Authority indicates that Ike will be far costlier than any other Houston-area storm in recent memory.
Wednesday, May 4, 2005
Texas had most weather-related insurance claims in first quarter
Austin Business Journal
Mostly because of hailstorms in the Austin area and the Hill Country, Texas led the country in insured catastrophic losses during the first quarter, the Insurance Council of Texas said Wednesday.
According to the Insurance Services Office Property Claims Services unit in Jersey City, N.J., Texas led all other states with $565 million in weather losses from Jan. 1 through March 31. California's wet weather placed it at a distant second for catastrophic losses, with $275 million.
The Insurance Council of Texas estimates that insured losses from storms in the Austin area will amount to about $140 million once all the claims have been settled.
On March 25, a cold front triggered several thunderstorms that packed high winds and large hail, striking portions of the Austin area and the Hill Country. Council spokesman Mark Hanna says those storms resulted in about 40,000 insurance claims
State May Have $2.1 Billion Storm Burden
(Taken from)
The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN – The state could be on the hook for as much as $2.1 billion because of the massive property damage inflicted on the Texas coast by Hurricane Ike.
Officials with the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association said Wednesday that claims paid by the so-called wind pool – the insurer of last resort that covers most of the coast – could reach as high as $4 billion in residential and commercial property losses.
Although insurance companies will initially have to pay most of the claims through mandatory assessments by the state, they will be able to recover those payments through deductions in their state premium taxes. Insurers can generally deduct about 20 % of their assessments each year.
Hurricane Ike was the third most destructive hurricane to ever hit the United States.
Hail damage estimated at
$160 million
Impacted: More than 22,000 vehicles,
15,000 homes
Updated: Monday, 30 Mar 2009, 5:51 PM CDT
Published : Monday, 30 Mar 2009, 10:00 AM CDT
Carla Castano
AUSTIN (KXAN) - Many Central Texans are still cleaning up from a large hail storm that knocked out windows, smashed roofs and dented thousands of automobiles on March 25. The Insurance Council of Texas estimates the insured losses will be around $160 million.
It's the most costly hailstorm in Central Texas in memory, council spokesman Mark Hanna said.
"I can't recall a hail storm of this magnitude, going back a couple of decades,” said Hanna.
Repair shops, car rental companies and insurance agents are all struggling to keep up with so many people who were impacted.
Most rental-car companies in the area are sold out.
"All the rent cars are gone because of all this hail," said Sherrie Jones of northwest Austin.
Jones said she will be depending on rides from friends for the next couple of weeks, until her car can be repaired.
"Compounding the situation was the fact that a couple hundred Enterprise rental cars were also damaged,” said Ned Maniscalco, Enterprise Rent-A-Car spokesman. “We are now in the process of bringing in replacements for those vehicles from all around Texas as well as from Oklahoma."
The storm swept in from Western Burnet County pummeling Marble Falls with golf ball size hail. Tennis ball size hail was reported in parts of Travis and Williamson counties.
Hundreds of new cars in several automobile dealerships were heavily damaged. In all, more than 22,000 vehicles were damaged in the storm, and nearly 15,000 homes received insured losses.
Major insurance companies have been advertising in the local media alerting policyholders where to call to report their claims.
This is the second time in less than a year that parts of Austin have been pounded by a catastrophic hail storm. On May 14, 2008, 20,000 claims came from a storm producing 65 mph wind gusts and large hail. The May 14 storm caused $50 million in insured losses.
The Insurance Council of Texas is the largest state insurance trade association in the country consisting of approximately 500 property and casualty insurers writing business in Texas. For more information turn to ICT’s Web site .
Each window repair worker is putting in about a dozen new windshields a day and still Enterprise Rent-a-car is struggling to keep up with all the requests for rentals. With some 25,000 thousand damaged cars reported to insurance companies in central Texas the well-known rental company is putting the gas on repairs.
In the short term, the storm is bringing in more work to the sluggish auto and home repair industries, which have been down
However, it could potentially mean an increase to insurance rates down the road. "Having two bad hail storms back to back it's certainly not positive."
Still, Insurance Council of Texas spokesman Hanna said, now could be a good time to shop around to make sure you have the coverage you want.
Hurricane Ike adjusting license, hail storm adjusting classes - Texas Insurance Claims Adjuster Online Training classes
Hurricane Ike adjusting license, hail storm adjusting classes - Texas Insurance Claims Adjuster Online Training classes
Texas Insurance Claims Adjuster Online Training
