Posted by Benji Riggins on May 24, 2010 under Safety | 
With weather forecasters calling for a worse-than-average 2010 Atlantic basin hurricane season, the Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) is advising property owners on the most effective ways to protect their homes and businesses from hurricane damage.
IBHS is also trying to dispel some common myths about hurricane preparedness.
Forecasters predict 15 named storms to form in the Atlantic basin between June 1 and November 30, with eight expected to be hurricanes and four developing into major hurricanes (Saffir/Simpson category 3-4-5) with sustained winds of 111 mph or greater. The prediction is based on the premise that El Nino conditions will dissipate by this summer and that anomalously warm tropical Atlantic sea surface temperatures will persist.
IBHS is a nonprofit scientific and educational organization supported by the property insurance industry. Here’s what IBHS wants property owners to know:
Facts:
1. A new, well-installed roof is one of the best forms of protection available
If your shingle roof cover needs to be replaced, do it now, while there is still enough time for the shingles to heat up and seal properly before a storm threatens. Be sure to remove older material down to the roof sheathing and have the deck re-nailed. Spend a little extra to provide a secondary water barrier (in some areas, insurance discount may be available if you re-nail and/or install an approved secondary water barrier so check with your insurance company) and have a high wind-rated roof cover installed. IBHS has detailed guidance available to help you specify a quality installation.
2. Protecting all openings in exterior walls will greatly improve a building’s chances for surviving a hurricane
One of the most important things you can do to improve the chances your home or business will survive a hurricane is to protect all windows and doors. The range of products on the market today, such as storm shutters or impact-resistant windows, means it’s easier to find protection that fits your budget. Whatever you choose, make sure the product has the proper product approvals for wind pressure and large-missile impact. If it is not a permanent product, place permanent fasteners ahead of time so installation is easier when storms threaten. Gable end vents can be shuttered as if they were a window. Garage door companies have bracing systems available for about $400 that should work for most door styles.
3. Securing loose roof shingles is critical
Keeping shingles attached is critical. If the edge shingles are not well fastened or extend beyond the drip edge more than a 1/4″, high wind can lift them off and create a peeling process or domino effect. If they come up without much effort (older shingles become brittle and may crack when bent too much), secure them with three one-inch dabs of roofing cement under each tab.
4. Sealing openings, cracks and holes will help prevent water damage
Water can invade homes in a number of ways, especially when it’s being blown horizontally. The problem is compounded if there is a loss of power and air conditioners or dehumidifiers are unable to dry things out. Fill holes where wires, cables and pipes enter and exit the house and seal around electrical boxes and circuit breaker panels. Seal cracks around wall outlets, dryer vents, bathroom and kitchen vents, and wall lights.
5. Strengthening soffits (the material covering the underside of your roof overhang) also helps prevent water damage
Keeping soffits in place can help keep water out of your house. Some vinyl and aluminum soffit covers have wood supports, but the soffit material is not adequately fastened to the wood, or there is no wood backing and the vinyl or aluminum channels are stapled or nailed to the wall. If there are wood supports, secure soffit material with sharp-pointed stainless steel screws. If the channels are just nailed to the wall, you can use polyurethane caulk to seal the channel to the wall and tie the parts together.
6. Limiting potential flying debris helps protect your building
Limiting possible sources of wind-borne debris by surveying your building’s surroundings before a storm will help protect your home or business and those around you. Replace gravel/rock landscaping materials with shredded bark. Limit yard objects. Keep trees and shrubbery trimmed. Cut weak branches.
Myths:
1. Open the windows on the leeward side of the house so the air pressure doesn’t explode the building
It is almost impossible to know ahead of time which wall will be the leeward wall – and wind directions frequently change as a storm passes. Trying to open and close windows during the storm puts you next to glass that can break, causing injury. Also, as wind direction changes, open windows could allow wind-driven rain to stream into your house or business and ruin belongings. The normal leakage of air around windows and doors will tend to keep the pressure in your building slightly lower than the atmospheric pressure caused by the storm outside. The greatest danger comes when a large window or door fails on a wall facing the wind. The key is keeping all wind and water out with proper opening protection.
2. You only need to protect the openings facing the ocean or gulf
Because hurricanes are a moving, rotating storm, winds can come from any direction, which can change rapidly if you are near the eye. Your best bet is to protect windows and doors on all sides of your building.
3. Tape windows with a big “X”
Taping glass does nothing to address the main point of protection – keeping the glass in its frame and securely attached to the building.
4. Leaning or pushing against a window or door that is being blown inward by wind pressure can help keep the window or door from breaking or opening.
This clearly puts you in harm’s way and increases the likelihood that you will be cut or injured. No matter what kind of glass you have, stay away from all windows during a severe storm. Before a storm threatens, review the anchorage of your doors. On entry doors, you can install extra latches and make sure that hinges are well-anchored with long screws that extend into the wall framing. Take protective action ahead of time so that you won’t be tempted to try and keep doors closed by pushing on them. Put as many walls as you can between you and the windward side of your home.
Read more: http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2010/05/19/109991.htm#ixzz0oPJlWbhl
Posted by Benji Riggins on May 17, 2010 under Safety |
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that nearly 6,000 people died in 2008 in crashes involving a distracted or inattentive driver, and more than half a million were injured. Many of them were teens.
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, seven states currently ban driving while talking on a hand-held cell phone. The use of all cell phones by novice drivers is restricted in 21 states and the District of Columbia.
Text messaging is banned for all drivers in 19 states and the District of Columbia. In addition, novice drivers are banned from texting in nine states.
Meanwhile, Florida, Kentucky and Alabama are among the states weighing their own bans.
Nearly one out of five U.S. drivers surveyed has read or sent a text message while behind the wheel, according to a recent AAA survey – even though they consider such action unacceptable.
The AAA, the National Safety Council and most safety advocates have urged texting bans for drivers in all 50 states.
But recently an insurance industry study questioned whether these state laws are worth enacting.
The Highway Loss Data Institute study found that claims rates did not go down after the laws were enacted. It also found no change in patterns compared with nearby states without such bans.
HLDI is a respected research group but its results in this study seem to defy everyday experience, common sense and human psychology.
HLDI itself said its findings “don’t match what we already know about the risk of phoning and texting while driving” and it is gathering data to “figure out this mismatch.” One explanation could be an increase in the use of hands-free devices in places with bans on handset use while driving.
Dr. Amit Almor, a psychology researcher at the University of South Carolina, says language and driving are complex activities that tax the brain in many ways. Almor completed two studies in 2008 and 2009 that looked at the demands on the brain when talking on cell phones while driving. Texting adds another layer of language and motor skills, which Almor warns can make for a lethal combination.
“Verbal communication is a complex combination of listening, thought generating and talking. Driving involves assessment and decision-making and an array of motor skills,” Almor says. “Talking on a cell phone while driving is distracting and dangerous. Texting is far worse, as it adds another motor skill and keeps the driver in a different mental space for a much longer period of time.”
Adrian Lund, HLDI president, said the group’s finding doesn’t bode well “for any safety payoff from all the new laws.”
The National Governors Association said the HLDI study “raises as many questions as it answers” and is urging states to pass texting bans, but hold off on banning other cell phone use while driving until there is more data.
Follow-up research should be put on a fast track. States do not need more laws that don’t work but they also shouldn’t let one study keep them from their safety mission. Isn’t it always better to be safe than sorry?
By Andrew G. Simpson
Posted by Benji Riggins on May 11, 2010 under Safety |
Driving after dark poses the largest risk to teenage drivers and is more likely to result in death than drinking, speeding or not wearing a seat belt, according to a nation-wide 10 year study of highway fatalities conducted by the Texas Transportation Institute.
Bernie Fette, one of the study’s authors said, “Everything points in the same direction for this age group, and that is to the use of cell phones behind the wheel. Whenever you combine the nighttime danger and the cell phone dangers with inexperience, you have created a perfect storm.”
The study used federal traffic data from 1999 to 2008, a period in which the overall number of traffic deaths declined nationwide.
The study found that among drivers aged 20 and older, alcohol was a major factor in the proportional increase in nighttime deaths, but with teen drivers, no corresponding jump in deaths could be attributed to drunken driving.
Studies show that teenagers tend to underestimate the dangers of cell phone use, and are often unaware that nightfall increases risk posed by their inexperience and fatigue.
The study found that nighttime driving poses the number one risk for fatalities among teenage drivers, followed by speed, distractions, failure to wear a seat belt and the use of alcohol.
Posted by Benji Riggins on May 5, 2010 under Insurance News |
This week begins the first phase of a process that will see about 1 million North Carolina policyholders begin to receive refund checks from their auto insurance companies totaling more than $50 million.
The refund distribution is a result of the 2009 auto rate settlement with the insurers’ rating bureau, the North Carolina Rate Bureau (NCRB), that Commissioner Wayne Goodwin signed last July.
“These refund checks represent instances where North Carolina drivers were paying too much for their auto insurance, and I’m glad that these extra premium dollars plus interest will go back into their wallets,” said Goodwin.
The refund distribution will occur in two different waves, the first starting this week and the second starting on Nov. 1.
Refund checks will be mailed to eligible policyholders. According to the settlement language, companies writing only six-month policies and companies writing both six-month and 12-month policies that expire prior to May 1, 2010, should send out refunds May 1 – July 31, 2010. All other refunds should be sent Nov. 1, 2010 to Jan. 31, 2011.
The checks are the result of a dispute between the Department of Insurance and the rate bureau over rates ordered in 2008. During the appeals process, the NCRB implemented an interim 9.4 percent rate increase that went into effect on Jan.1, 2009. In cases where insurance companies charged policyholders more than the rates determined by the 2009 settlement, insurance companies are required by statute to refund the difference between the rates charged and the settled rates, with interest.
The 2009 auto settlement did away with the NCRB’s implemented 9.4 percent 2008 rate increase and denied their 2009 request for an additional 1.4 percent rate increase and included an additional 0.5 percent decrease. Under the settlement, the NCRB may not file changes to auto rates until 2011, which means that the maximum allowable auto rates are locked in until Oct. 1, 2011 at the earliest.
Tags: auto ins, auto insurance nc, auto insurance North Carolina, auto insurance refund, car ins, car insurance nc, car insurance north carolina, car insurance refund, insurance, insurance agency, insurance agent
Posted by Benji Riggins on May 3, 2010 under Flood |
“Homeowners can mitigate against wind damage, but they’re powerless, really, to do anything against storm surge,” says one researcher whose job it is to develop ways to determine the vulnerability of homes and other properties not only to storm surge, but wildfires, sinkholes, earthquakes and other natural perils.
Dr. Howard Botts, vice president and director of development for First American Spatial Solutions (FASS), says a recent report and model developed by his company are able to demonstrate how destructive, both physically and financially, storm surge can be.
Storm surge is “such a large scale phenomenon that doesn’t really respect construction and other kinds of things,” Botts said. “If you’re in a storm surge zone, you’re likely to be impacted by it.”
Until Hurricane Katrina in 2005, however, the impact of storm surge on the overall property losses caused by hurricanes was generally not in the forefront of concern to most residential property insurance companies. After all, storm surge was a flood loss not covered by the traditional homeowners insurance policy.
Katrina and the lawsuits that followed changed that mindset.
Insurers, and indeed the world, saw first hand the amount of damage storm surge could produce. Just three years later, Hurricane Ike blasted ashore near Galveston, Texas, with a massive storm surge that helped it become the third most costly U.S. hurricane on record, largely due to the surge.
A member of the First American Corp. family of companies, FASS has access to information on around 90 percent of all the private properties in the United States, or at least 124 million separate addresses. The group has used that information to develop a model to analyze storm surge exposure at the individual property level.
The 2010 First American Storm Surge Report released in late March illustrates the exposure of single residential structures to storm surge in 13 key geographic areas. The numbers are massive. The storm surge exposure to Miami alone in the event of a Category 5 hurricane $53.6 billion, according to the report.
Flood Coverage or Not?
Insurance agents throughout the United States, and especially those whose customers own properties near the nation’s coastlines, are painfully aware that only a fraction of residential property owners that need the protection of flood insurance actually buy it. Even homeowners in areas that are high risk for flooding sometimes are reluctant to spend the extra money, although the coverage is far less expensive than traditional property insurance.
Botts said the information provided by the storm surge hazard model could be a useful tool for agents and insurance companies to use to educate insureds about the danger of storm surge in vulnerable coastal areas — and in informing property owners of the need to buy flood insurance.
“What we do is we build large, hazard risk data sets, tax data sets, sales and use tax, premium tax for the insurance industry. And we combine these very granular risk-hazard or tax databases with a geocoder that we developed, which takes an address and can get you right down to, literally, the rooftop,” Botts said.
What this means for insurers, and agents, is that they can visibly show owners of properties along and near the hurricane prone coastlines just what the impact of storm surge from a Cat 1 or Cat 5 hurricane, or any size storm in between, would be on a particular insured’s property.
For example, storm surge report released in March was designed “to look at 13 major residential property markets in the Gulf and Atlantic coastal region and understand, at a property-by-property level, which of these properties were in a storm surge potential area or would be exposed to storm surge,” Botts explained. Then property-by-property the dollar value of those single family homes — the buildings only, not the contents — in potentially affected areas was determined.
A Ton of Water
“Storm surge moves with the forward speed of the hurricane — typically 10–15 mph,” the report states. “One cubic yard of sea water weighs 1,728 pounds — almost a ton.”
Adding to the impact of rushing water, the trees, pieces of buildings and other debris that are typically caught up in the swirl act as a battering rams when they come into contact with a stationary object, such as another building.
Even areas that are not in direct path of a hurricane can be hugely impacted, as evidenced during Hurricane Ike, when its storm surge powered north up Galveston Bay, along the east side of Houston.
Botts says natural and man-made channels and barriers can add to the destructive possibilities.
“What’s going to facilitate inward movement? Creeks, bayous, drainage ditches,” he said, adding that un-raised highways and railroad rights-of-way can also serve that purpose. Meanwhile, natural and man-made barriers, such as hills, levees, even mounds of earth can keep the surge from flowing out of inland areas.
“We spend an enormous amount of time looking at what happens once that water gets onshore, what are the likely areas of inundation,” Botts said.
Listen to Insurance Journal’s interview with Dr. Howard Botts online at http://www.insurancejournal.tv/videos/3622/.
By Stephanie K. Jones
April 30, 2010
