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KCC Estimates Texas Hailstorm Insured Losses at $1B

An early June hailstorm caused an estimated $1 billion in insured losses to residential and commercial properties and automobiles, the majority of which is expected to be in Texas, according to Karen Clark & Company. Baseball-sized hail was reported in …

Costlier Disasters Push U.S. to Buy Reinsurance

The federal government, seeking to protect itself from the growing cost of natural disasters, is borrowing a technique from the private sector and buying reinsurance. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which started purchasing reinsurance last year for the National Flood …

Counting Deaths After a Hurricane Difficult

How many people died in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria? It’s a question that has been debated since the powerful storm slammed into the island and devastated the U.S. territory last year. It’s also raised questions about how officials go …

Heat Not the Only Sign That Climate Change is Happening

You don’t just feel the heat of global warming, you can see it in action all around. Some examples of where climate change’s effects have been measured: Glaciers across the globe are melting and retreating, with 279 billion tons of …

Power Tool Used to Clear Brush Blamed for Sparking LA Hillside Fire

More than 250 firefighters raced to the hills overlooking Los Angeles, Calif., to battle a blaze Tuesday afternoon they say was sparked by someone using a power tool to clear brush in a neighborhood of multimillion-dollar mansions. Helicopters repeatedly dropped …

Fitch: U.S. P/C Personal Lines Results Decline Despite Auto Improvement

Underwriting losses in the U.S. P/C personal lines segment moved higher for the fourth straight year in 2017, though this time another segment drove the increase, according to Fitch Ratings in a new report. Personal lines are the largest major …

Vendor Blamed for Mistaken Alaska Tsunami Alert

A third-party vendor is being blamed for a mistaken tsunami alert broadcast on Alaska TV and radio stations last month. Dennis Bookey, co-chair of the Alaska State Emergency Communications Committee, said that this and similar incidents suggest the format of …

California Insurance Appraiser and Doctor Busted in Separate Fraud Schemes

California Auto Insurance Appraiser Gets 10 Years for Involvement in Staged Collision Ring Erwin Raul Mejia of Van Nuys, Calif., was sentenced to 10 years in state prison following his conviction on 10 felony counts of insurance fraud for his …

New Travelers Data Reveals Distracted Driving Spikes in Summer

Drivers are being warned about the increased risk for distracted driving this summer. Travelers and its public policy division, the Travelers Institute, along with TrueMotion, a smartphone telematics platform, recently analyzed the behavior of more than 20,000 drivers from January …

Rare River Sinkhole Created by Whirlpool Led to Death

A kayaker bypassed a part of an Arkansas scenic river known as Dead Man’s Curve during a weekend trip, but a rare sinkhole created a whirlpool along his alternate channel and dragged him to his death. Donald Wright, 64, from …

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