"Homeowners Choice has assumed more than 23,000 policies from Citizens, representing $66 million in annualized premiums, the filing said. About 85 percent of Homeowners Choice policies are homeowners' insurance policies. and the remaining 15 percent are a combination of policies written for condominium-owners and tenants." (source: bizjournals.com)

"Slightly More Storms than Average with Increased Chances for Landfalls in North America

AccuWeather.com Hurricane Center meteorologists, led by Chief Long-Range and Hurricane Forecaster Joe Bastardi, have released a preliminary hurricane season forecast for 2008. They believe the waning La Niña conditions and a continued warm water cycle in the Atlantic Basin will be the two defining factors influencing the 2008 hurricane season, causing the number of storms to be slightly above average but, more importantly, increasing the chance for U.S. landfalling storms.

"The warming is not uniform across the entire Atlantic. In some areas where hurricanes normally form - the central and eastern tropical Atlantic - ocean water temperatures are near or below normal. This should limit the number of storms, so we do not expect a near record high number like in the 2005 season. However, considering other factors, the number of storms should be slightly higher than historical averages", said Bastardi. "The warmest waters relative to normal will be in the northern areas of the Atlantic, especially toward the North American continent. This could potentially increase the threat of major landfalls to the U.S. coast." (source:accuweather.com)

"JERSEY CITY, N.J., April 29, 2008 — U.S. property/casualty insurers are expected to pay homeowners and businesses an estimated $3.35 billion for first-quarter property losses resulting from nine catastrophes.

The nine events identified as catastrophes by PCS include an event PCS declared a catastrophe solely for the workers compensation loss associated with a February explosion at a sugar refinery in Georgia. This declaration is in keeping with PCS’s commitment to identify events affecting the property/casualty industry. Currently, no estimate of the extent of the insured workers compensation loss has been determined. The analysis in this press release excludes that catastrophe.

PCS estimates that the remaining eight catastrophes of first-quarter 2008 generated 615,000 claims in 22 states. Seven of these were caused by severe weather — damaging wind, large hail, flooding, and tornadoes — and one was caused by a winter storm.

“The remaining eight events still represent the greatest frequency in the first quarter since 1999 — tied with the eight events declared in 2005,” said Gary Kerney, assistant vice president, PCS. “The insured property loss, however, remains the largest in the last decade.”

Of the 22 states, the five with the largest insured property losses were Georgia ($610 million), Tennessee ($535 million), California ($360 million), Texas ($270 million), and Arkansas ($223 million)." (source:Insurance Services Office, iso.com)

"SUFFOLK, Va. (AP) — Weary residents and business owners, some awakening in emergency shelters, were preparing to see what was left of their homes and livelihoods Tuesday after three tornadoes smashed houses, tossed cars and injured than 200 residents.

One twister in this city outside Norfolk cut a fickle, zigzagging path 25 miles long through neighborhoods, obliterating some homes and spraying splintered wood across lawns while leaving those standing just a few feet away untouched.

Several roads were closed Tuesday morning, and traffic was backed up leading into downtown Suffolk. Cars remained abandoned alongside some roads.

Suffolk city officials said rescue crews had gone through damaged areas and homes overnight and planned to keep searching for victims." (source:Associated Press )

DALLAS — Meteorologists determined Thursday that a severe storm that destroyed homes and knocked down trees in suburban Fort Worth a day earlier was a tornado packing winds of up to 115 mph.

The tornado hit Crowley Wednesday night, leaving a path of damage and debris that was about 0.3 miles long and 100 yards wide, according to the National Weather Service.

Four other tornadoes were confirmed Thursday from the storms that swept across West and North Texas on Wednesday.

A weak tornado touched down in Erath and Palo Pinto counties and strong winds caused damage in Hood, Johnson and Tarrant counties, officials said.

Most of the damage in Snyder in West Texas was from straightline winds, but it appears that a tornado also briefly touched down, said David Henning, a senior forecaster with the National Weather Service in Midland.

In southern Dawson County between Patricia and Ackerly, two tornadoes touched down in "the middle of nowhere," he said.

Aerial video of the Crowley area 12 miles south of Fort Worth showed the roofs of homes stripped of shingles and decking and cars buried beneath the debris of what had once been garages.

"All in all, just your regular Texas spring thunderstorm with possible tornadoes and golfball-size hail," said Tarrant County spokesman Mark Flake. (source: chron.com)

"WASHINGTON—April 21, 2008 - Federal windstorm insurance offered through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) would needlessly displace the private market, disrupt existing state funds, and create a significant burden for U.S. taxpayers, according to the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI).

PCI asks the U.S. Senate not to add wind insurance to the flood program (as proposed within H.R. 3121, the Flood Insurance Reform and Modernization Act) because either private or state residual markets for windstorm coverage already exist for more than 99 percent of all coastal properties in the United States. Only properties in significant disrepair, representing less than 1 percent of the total, are uninsurable through these programs.

The following coastal states (and the District of Columbia) have a Fair Access to Insurance Requirements (FAIR) plan: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia, and Washington. Additionally, five states (Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas) have programs designed specifically to provide windstorm coverage, and Florida and Louisiana each have a Citizens Property Insurance Corporation."
(source: Property Casualty Insurers Association of America)

"JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A federal judge on Monday dismissed claims of fraud in a key Hurricane Katrina lawsuit that accused State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. of using different engineering reports to deny a couple's insurance policy after the storm.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge L.T. Senter Jr. applied to the federal lawsuit filed by Thomas and Pamela McIntosh, who sued State Farm after the insurer blamed most of the damages to their Biloxi home on Katrina's storm surge and paid the couple $36,228. The homeowners policy excluded coverage for flood damage.

"Judge Senter has confirmed what we have been saying all along — this is a basic wind/water dispute and plaintiffs cannot prove fraud," State Farm spokesman Jonathan Freed said Monday. "Shortly after the storm, State Farm paid the limit on the McIntoshes' flood policy and also paid in excess of $36,000 for wind damage." (source:By Holdbrook Mohr @ ap.google.com)

The 2007 Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities (WGCEP 2007), a multi-disciplinary collaboration of scientists and engineers, has released the Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast (UCERF)—the first comprehensive framework for comparing earthquake likelihoods throughout all of California. It provides important new information for improving seismic safety engineering, revising building codes, setting insurance rates, and helping communities prepare for inevitable future earthquakes.

In developing the UCERF, the 2007 Working Group revised earlier forecasts for Southern California (WGCEP 1995) and the San Francisco Bay Area (WGCEP 2003) by incorporating new data on active faults and an improved scientific understanding of how faults rupture to produce large earthquakes. It extended the forecast across the entire state using a uniform methodology, allowing for the first time meaningful comparisons of earthquake probabilities in urbanized areas such as Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay Area, as well as comparisons among the large faults in different parts of the state.  (source: Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast (UCERF) )

"FORT WORTH, Texas - Much of North Texas was under a severe thunderstorm watch as large hail and damaging winds moved through the area Thursday night. In addition to tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds blasted the Metroplex. Viewers reported baseball-size hail as the storm produced damage in the Mineral Wells area. Hail from golf-ball to pea-sized hail was reported falling over other parts of North Texas." (Source:KXAS-TV)

Earthquake Details

Magnitude	5.2
Date-Time	Friday, April 18, 2008 at 09:37:00 UTC Friday, April 18, 2008 at 04:37:00 AM at epicenter
	Location - Click for Map
Depth	11.6 km (7.2 miles) set by location program
Region	ILLINOIS
Distances	7 km (5 miles) NNE (13°) from Bellmont, IL 9 km (6 miles) E (88°) from Bone Gap, IL 11 km (7 miles) N (350°) from Keensburg, IL 60 km (38 miles) NNW (331°) from Evansville, IN 206 km (128 miles) E (95°) from St. Louis, MO

 (source: earthquake.usgs.gov)
 
Headlines:

• 5.2 Quake Hits
• 5.2 earthquake rocks Illinois; also felt in Ohio and Indiana
• Updated: 5.2 earthquake rocks Illinois

Click here for the CADO Discussion

From the order;

"IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that any documents supplied by Cori Rigsby or Kerri Rigsby to the Scruggs Katrina Group, the Katrina Litigation Group, or any attorney/law firm who has been disqualified by this Order, shall be excluded from evidence unless the plaintiffs can show that the documents were obtained through ordinary methods of discovery." (source: from the order posted on insurancecoverageblog.com)

"State Farm is still filing motions this afternoon asking that a federal judge throw out a whistle-blower lawsuit against the company.

The insurance company maintains two former claims adjusters, Ocean Springs sisters Cori and Kerri Rigsby, have no first-hand knowledge that the company mishandled Katrina claims, comparing them to "Chicken Littles" with groundless allegations.

State Farm also argues that the lawsuit should not stand because the Rigsbys based it on confidential documents stolen from the company. Further, State Farm says, the sisters have failed to show that the insurance company filed false Katrina claims with the National Flood Insurance Program, as alleged." (source:sunherald.com)

April 9th Hurricane Forecast

	Dec  7th, 2007	April 9th, 2008
Named Storms	13	15
Named Storm Days	60	80
Hurricanes	7	8
Hurricane Days	30	40
Intense Hurricanes	3	4
Intense Hurricane Days	6	9

"BATON ROUGE - The Louisiana Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously ruled that homeowners insurance policies do not have to cover damages caused by levee breaches in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

The justices agreed that Lafayette Insurance Co. was within its rights to deny coverage for flooding to the Uptown fourplex belonging to Joseph Sher, 92, ruling that when his apartment took on four feet of water after the levees broke on Aug. 29, 2005, the disaster was a flood, and therefore is excluded from coverage under his policy.

The American Insurance Association, an insurance industry lobbying group, hailed the court's decision for making a "reaffirmation of the sanctity of contracts between an insurance company and its policyholder," AIA President Marc Racicot said in a statement."
(source:legalnewsline.com)

Steve has added the decision to the download section, click here to visit the download area.

"04/04/2008 NORTHBROOK, Ill. -

Allstate announced today that it publicly released approximately 150,000 pages of documents pertaining to a review of its claim practices conducted in the 1990s. Allstate was assisted in the review by business consulting firm McKinsey & Co.

The documents relate to a complex body of work that as a whole demonstrates a careful, fact-based analysis to better enable the company to more promptly investigate and more consistently and effectively evaluate claims based upon their own merits.

Public criticisms by people with a vested interest in creating an inaccurate picture of the company's claim practices have been based unfairly on only snippets from the documents taken out of context.

We continue to believe that the documents deserve protection as containing trade secret and confidential proprietary information and that our actions to protect them from general disclosure have been appropriate. However, because of the need to address misunderstandings resulting from the growing misplaced focus by our critics on very small pieces of the whole, we have decided to make the documents public. "