Monthly Archives: <span>October 2018</span>

Michael Highlights Florida Panhandle’s Weak Building Codes

Unlike in South Florida, homes in the state’s Panhandle did not have tighter building codes until just 11 years ago; it was once argued that acres of forests would provide the region with a natural barrier against the savage winds …

FEMA Chief Slams U.S. Failure to Prepare, Evacuate Before Storms

Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long angrily criticized the failure of citizens to heed evacuation warnings and leaders to better prepare for natural disasters such as Hurricane Michael. “It’s frustrating to us because we repeat this same cycle over …

Working Through Allocation Issues When Multiple Storms Happen

A nuanced approach is necessary to work through claims involving multiple perils, according to Bob O’Brien, managing director of Marsh’s National Property Claims Practice and Paul McVey, managing director and Marsh’s National chief property claims officer. A recent blog post …

Los Angeles Highway Crash Leaves 25 Hospitalized, 5 Serious

Twenty-five people were taken to hospitals with mostly minor injuries following a series of crashes involving at least two cars and a bus that crashed through a concrete divider on a Los Angeles highway, authorities said. Five patients were in …

Senate Will Probe Massachusetts Pipeline Blasts Tied to Utility Work

A Senate oversight panel next month will convene a hearing to probe the series of explosions in September that rocked several towns north of Boston, an incident that federal investigators have linked to work orders by NiSource Inc.’s Columbia Gas …

California Train Agency Fined $650,000 for Worker Deaths

Regulators fined the San Francisco Bay Area’s transit agency $650,000 on Thursday for safety failures that led a commuter train to strike and kill two workers inspecting track five years ago during a union strike. The California Public Utilities Commission …

Report: Homes in Fire-Prone Areas Hike Missoula Firefighting Costs

Rapid population growth and the desire to live near forests means new housing in western Montana is being built in wildfire-prone areas, increasing taxpayer-funded fire suppression liabilities and putting lives and property in danger, according to a new study. Half …

In a Proactive Move, PG&E Cuts Power to 60,000 to Prevent Wildfires

PG&E Corp. deliberately left customers in the dark for the first time as a precaution to prevent wildfires from breaking out. Almost 60,000 customers in six counties across the Sierra Nevada foothills and Northern California wine country were blacked out …

P/C Industry’s Net Income More Than Doubles to $34B in First-Half 2018

Private U.S. property/casualty insurers saw their net income after taxes more than double to $34 billion in first-half 2018 from $15.5 billion in first-half 2017, with the help of lower catastrophe losses, growing premiums, and an increase in investment income, …

N.Y. Senator Says Feds Haven’t Done Enough to Investigate Limo Safety

On the heels of a horrific limousine crash that killed 20 people in upstate New York, the Senate’s top Democrat is pointing to glaring gaps in safety data that he says exist because federal officials have not done enough to …