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Sharp Drop Seen in Houston Flood Insurance Policies in Past 5 Years

Houston’s population is growing quickly, but when Harvey hit last weekend there were far fewer homes and other properties in the area with flood insurance than just five years ago, according to an Associated Press investigation. The sharp, 9 percent …

Houston Drainage Grid Considered Beyond Obsolete

Houston’s system of bayous and reservoirs was built to drain a tabletop-flat city prone to heavy rains. But its Depression-era design is no match for the stresses brought by explosive development and ever-wetter storms. Nearly any city would be overwhelmed …

Buffett Says Hurricane Harvey Damage Will Linger

Billionaire Warren Buffett says the storm damage in Texas is staggering, but he isn’t sure yet how much insurance companies will have to pay in claims. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate owns Geico and several other insurers, so his company will …

High Volume of Overweight Trucks Seen on Oklahoma Roads

As the crossroads of America, Oklahoma’s roads get a high volume of commercial truck traffic. The problem is that a lot of those trucks are illegal. The Oklahoma Corporation Commission transportation division’s automated ports of entry can more efficiently monitor …

South Korea Court Rules Worker’s Rare Disease Linked to Samsung Factory

South Korea’s Supreme Court said a former worker in a Samsung LCD factory who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis should be recognized as having an occupationally caused disease, overturning lower courts’ verdicts that held lack of evidence against the worker. …

Many Harvey Flood Victims Will Have to Pay Out of Pocket for Home Repairs

Homeowners suffering flood damage from Harvey are more likely to be on the hook for losses than victims of prior storms – a potentially crushing blow to personal finances and neighborhoods along the Gulf Coast. Insurance experts say only a …

Federal Probe Finds Abuse in Nursing Homes Largely Unreported Despite Law

More than 1 in 4 cases of possible sexual and physical abuse against nursing home patients apparently went unreported to police, says a government audit that faults Medicare for failing to enforce a federal law requiring immediate notification. The Health …

Harvey Makes Another Landfall on Battered Gulf Coastline

On Tuesday morning, disaster analyst Chuck Watson pegged $42 billion as a reasonable estimate for the cost of destruction Tropical Storm Harvey would leave in its wake. By dawn Wednesday, he had raised that to much as $75 billion. Harvey’s …

When Perils Combine – Concurrent Causation and Texas Law

Hurricane Harvey is the strongest hurricane to hit the Texas coast in over 55 years. Like all hurricanes, in some locations Harvey produced strong winds causing wind uplift and projectile property damage. Such damage was widespread in the Rockport area. …

Harvey Could Spark Debate on How, Where Americans Build Homes

Jerry Garcia’s home in Corpus Christi missed the worst of Hurricane Harvey by just a few miles and lost nothing more than some shingles and his backyard pier, which turned up further down Oso Bay. A 5-foot bulkhead and sloping …

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