Following an earthquake in the early hours of Wednesday morning, at least 1,100 insurance claims were received in the first 12 hours after the tremor, according to Abbey.

The earthquake which measured 5.2 on the Richter Scale was Britain’s most powerful for almost 25 years.

There have been reports of structural damage near to the earthquake’s epicentre close to Market Rasen in Lincolnshire. However, the tremor was felt as far south as London and was also reported as far North as Yorkshire. (source:www.financemarkets.co.uk)

Since December, ice dams are to blame for water leaking into hundreds of Dane County homes, WISC-TV reported.

Vicki Andrews, from American Family Insurance, said it's the worst she's seen in at least the last 10 years. She said adjusters have been working at capacity to assess damage.

"Between December and January, we've had two large influxes of these ice dam claims," Andrews said. "The catastrophe department has handled upwards of 700 of those -- over and above what our own local adjusters are handling." (source:www.channel3000.com)

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — An earthquake struck Britain early Wednesday and was felt across large parts of the country. Police reported some minor damage to homes but no injuries.

The British Geological Survey said it was a 5.3-magnitude quake but the U.S. Geological Survey earlier put the magnitude at 4.7. The tembor struck at about 1 a.m. and was centered about 125 miles north of London.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A couple who lost their home to Hurricane Rita went to the Louisiana Supreme Court on Tuesday with their contention that state law requires an insurance company to pay the full cost of their loss even though flood water - not covered in their policy - did much of the damage.

It was one of two insurance cases before the court Tuesday stemming from hurricanes Rita and Katrina, the 2005 storms that devastated much of Louisiana's coast. Both cases have major implications for the state's insurance market and for many victims of the storms. (source:Associated Press)

"State Farm, the largest private insurance company in Florida, will stop writing new homeowner policies anywhere in the state, a company spokesman confirmed Friday.

State Farm has a significant presence in the Tampa Bay area with about 120,000 policyholders, or nearly one out of every five homeowners. The company's latest move won't directly affect those policyholders. 

Its ban on new policies, as first reported Friday by tampabay.com, comes as the company embarks on a yearlong process of dropping 50,000 policies along Florida's coast. It also comes after an unusual meeting Thursday of State Farm officials and the company's nearly 900 Florida agents, many of whom expressed concern that their ability to write new policies has been handcuffed by recent changes in state law." (source:sptimes.com)

A team of scientists have found that the economic damages from hurricanes have increased in the U.S. over time due to greater population, infrastructure, and wealth on the U.S.  coastlines, and not to any spike in the number or intensity of hurricanes.

“We found that although some decades were quieter and less damaging in the U.S. and others had more land-falling hurricanes and more damage, the economic costs of land-falling hurricanes have steadily increased over time,” said Chris Landsea, one of the researchers as well as the science and operations officer at NOAA’s National Hurricane Center in Miami. “There is nothing in the U.S. hurricane damage record that indicates global warming has caused a significant increase in destruction along our coasts.” (source:noaanews.noaa.gov)

Damage reports from the earthquake that hit Nevada yesterday are starting to surface. FEMA will have a report out later today. It does not appear that many of the residents had earthquake insurance.  One State Farm agent has stated that he sold one policy in 10 years.  One report also indicated that a lot of the buildings that were damaged had been abandoned and were not used.  

Florida's Citizens Property Insurance Corp. and International Catastrophe Insurance Managers LLC (ICAT) today announced that ICAT will continue to issue Citizens' wind-only commercial nonresidential policies into 2008.

When Citizens' new commercial nonresidential multi-peril program is available, ICAT will cease issuing new Citizens' wind-only commercial nonresidential policies and Citizens will begin issuing and servicing the new commercial nonresidential multi-peril policies internally. (source:insurancejournal.com)

PASCAGOULA -- The Mississippi congressional delegation says there is a good chance for U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor's all-peril insurance proposal to make it into law this year.

All-peril insurance would add wind damage protection for coastal residents and businesses to the federal government's flood protection insurance program. Taylor has said in the past that wind damage insurance is not just an issue for Gulf Coast residents, noting that about 50 percent of the United States' population lives along a coastline. (source:gulflive.com)

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A report for the state Insurance Department shows that the state-sponsored “insurer of last resort” had trouble handling claims for hurricanes Katrina and Rita because it was switching to new outside contractors and ...(source:thetowntalk.com)

Separately, the company said it will pay $250,000 to the insurance department as part of an agreement on its inspection program. Donelon threatened to fine Allstate in March 2007 after hundreds of complaints from homeowners who said the company ...(source:www.chicagotribune.com)

Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel - Citizens Property Insurance Corp. , Florida's largest property insurer, is hoping its investments in a troubled state investment pool bounce back before hurricane season starts in June. About $7 billion it taps to pay storm claims is managed by the ...(source:www.sun-sentinel.com)

The adjusting community is not immune to the shifting sands underpinning the general financial services community at large. Gone are the days of handshake deals and the prevalence of mom-and-pop shops. Instead, the adjusting community is hearing more about the so-called "big box" phenomenon, in which an array of insurance services are all housed under the roof of one parent company -- not unlike the retail equivalent of a Wal-Mart or a Home Depot. Insurers are increasingly putting out requests for proposals (RFPs) and building procurement teams to select their adjusting firms of choice instead of the tradition of relying on past business relationships. ... (source:canadianunderwriter.ca)

Mississippi Valley Severe Weather

CURRENT SITUATION:
Recovery efforts continue in southeastern U.S. following severe weather that occurred on February 5, 2008. 
STATE and LOCAL RESPONSE
Homes Destroyed or Damaged-

• Alabama - 88 destroyed, 62 damaged (42 major, 20 minor)
• Kentucky - 106 destroyed, 239 damaged (all major). (Note: these numbers are from State of Kentucky, not FEMA PDA team.)
• Mississippi - 25 destroyed, 330 damaged (16 major, 314 minor); Business - 12 destroyed, 11 major and 25 minor. (Note: these numbers are from State of Mississippi, not FEMA PDA team.)
• Region IV and VI RRCCs have returned to Level III - normal operations.
• Tennessee JFO is located in Brentwood, TN.
• Arkansas JFO is located at Lucent Technology Center, in Little Rock, AR.
• There are no Emergency Response Teams (ERT) are in Alabama, Kentucky or Mississippi.
• Region VIII ERT has been >(FEMA HQ)
• (source - FEMA)

"On the heels of a federal report that found "an inherent conflict of interest" in having private insurance companies determine how much the government should pay on flood claims, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., plans to introduce legislation creating an ombudsman to strengthen financial oversight of the National Flood Insurance Program.

Her bill would create the position within the Federal Emergency Management Agency to audit and monitor insurance companies and their subcontractors that do work for the government flood program.

The "report reiterates what we've long known -- when it comes to making sure the big insurance companies are living up to their promises, there's no one at the NFIP minding the store," Landrieu said in a prepared statement. "My legislation would create an independent office to make sure private insurers are acting in good faith, giving their customers the coverage they paid for. This ombudsman would be isolated from the political pressures of the powerful insurance lobby and have broad authority to hear and investigate complaints and stand up for insurance policyholders and taxpayers alike." (source: nola.com) 

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