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Ten Tips for Hurricane Preparedness

Protect your home by keeping up with routine home maintenance. For Texas instance, keeping your roof in good condition and your foundation sound can go a long way to preventing wind and water damage. You may be able to lessen hurricane damage to your home by making some simple structural upgrades. However, if you do make any changes to your home, such as a new roof, additions or alterations, you should build to the current windstorm building code and obtain an inspection certificate called a WPI8 which is required for TWIA coverage.

Be sure you have BOTH Texas flood insurance and windstorm insurance coverage. Flood insurance does not cover wind damage and Texas windstorm insurance does not cover flood/storm surge damage. Flood insurance is offered by your agent through the federal National Flood Insurance Program.

At least once a year, take an inventory of your property. Consider videotaping a “tour” of your belongings. Keep all property records and other important papers in a location away from your home (e.g., a safe deposit box).

Insure your property for what it will cost to REPLACE your belongings rather than basing coverage on current value.

Schedule an insurance “check-up” with your agent at least once a year about your Texas home insurance.

If changes to your insurance coverage are needed, plan ahead and don’t wait until the last minute. Most insurance companies cannot offer a windstorm policy when a storm appears in the Gulf of Mexico. Flood coverage requires a 30-day waiting period before it becomes effective after you purchase it.

Be sure you know how to file an insurance claim. Keep your agent’s contact information with you at all times.

Read your insurance policies and know what is covered and what is not covered. If you are not sure, discuss with your agent.

Purchase hurricane supplies such as food, water, flashlights and batteries. You may also consider a generator for electricity after a storm. Have materials ready to clean up and remove debris, such as gloves, rakes, trash bags and a chainsaw.

Most importantly, to protect you, your family and pets: learn about hurricane evacuation routes; plan what city or location you want to evacuate to in the event a storm threatens; ask friends and family to offer shelter if you need to evacuate; keep your car’s gas tank full to prepare for evacuation; and bring with you clothes, cash, bedding, food and any important family photos and mementos.

Take the time NOW to ensure that you and your family will be prepared when the next storm strikes. For more information about these tips and others, coastal residents are urged to contact their insurance agents.

Texas Orders Mcallen Insurance Agent To Pay Some $20,000 Restitution For Fraud - (Read Full Story)

The Department of Texas Insurance ruled McAllen insurance agent Francisco Javier Sanchez must pay nearly $20,000 in restitution for engaging in "fraudulent and dishonest acts and practices" several years ago.

In a final order issued in May and announced in a news release Monday, the department concluded Sanchez, 48, used several fake identities and addresses to file applications for pre-need funeral insurance policies. He would then collect on advance commissions issued by the Unity Financial Life Insurance Company, the order states.

Sanchez would often file incorrect Social Security numbers in the policy applications and attach money orders for the first month's premium, state records show. The fraudulent policies would then go unpaid and Sanchez would allegedly fail to return part of his commissions.

State Commissioner of Insurance Mike Geeslin ruled Sanchez must return $5,000 to Unity and also $11,258.62 to Security National Life Insurance Company, to whom he reportedly owed a separate debit balance.

Will new hurricane model raise your insurance rates?- (Read Full Story)

The threat of hurricane damage has pushed Texas home insurance rates sky high for many coastal residents. But inland homeowners soon may be paying more, too, thanks to an updated model some Texas insurance companies use to help set insurance rates. The revised model by Risk Management Solutions (RMS) has found that risk from wind damage in some coastal locations is lower than expected, but is higher than expected in some inland areas.

Reams of new wind speed measurements indicate that hurricanes don't fall apart over land as much as previously believed, meaning they can inflict more damage on inland areas.

This is the first major overhaul to the RMS model since 2003. The new model includes information collected during Hurricane Katrina, which wracked the Gulf Coast in 2005, and the endless parade of hurricanes that hit Florida in 2004.

"The information for the most recent storms dwarfs the data" collected in previous hurricanes, says Ryan Ogaard, senior vice president of RMS.

Homeowners insurance companies use the data to help prove to states that they have enough capital to pay insurance claims in the event a hurricane pummels a state, he says the new model in a bellwether state Florida rigorously checks hurricanes models and is seen as a bellwether for other coastal states when it comes to Texas homeowners insurance and hurricanes.

In the midst of a drought, Southeast Texas plans for floods – Read full Article

Despite the fact that Southeast Texas is suffering a drought that could be the worst in living memory, some people actually are thinking about floods and realizing with hurricane season upon us this is the time to purchase Texas flood insurance.

Doug Canant, Drainage District 6 chief engineer, said work continues on detention ponds in and around the city of Beaumont to be better prepared for whatever might fall from the sky when it does decide to come.

Ten years ago, before a lot of the projects that Beaumonters now take for granted were completed, Tropical Storm Allison parked itself over north Jefferson County and began to engulf the Beaumont and the China-Nome areas as if they were inside a washing machine's rinse cycle.

The early morning deluge on June 7, 2001, qualified as a 100-year storm, which is measured as 13 inches falling within 24 hours. It means a storm of that magnitude has a one-in-100 chance of happening in any one year, not once in 100 years.

Storm intensity varies, sometimes delivering rainfall amounts in just a couple of hours that can overwhelm any drainage preparations.

Drainage District 6 had built a series of detention ponds in the mid-1990s around the Folsom Drive-Dowlen Road area, which were first put to the test with Allison.