March 4, 2021      1:11 PM

Texas House Insurance talks anticipated losses from the ice storm

At least 150,000 claims were filed in the week following the storm, mostly homeowner claims; the industry says “To put that in perspective, when you go back and look at Harvey, there were 167,000 claims paid in that storm…So, in terms of claims, this may be as big as Hurricane Ike” in 2008

Early insurance industry estimates are pegging the destruction from the Texas winter ice storm at somewhere in the range of $9 billion to $10 billion.

The Texas House Insurance Committee touched on those numbers as it talked to a number of stakeholders about last month’s catastrophic storm. Albert Betts of the Insurance Council of Texas, the industry’s trade group, said it was obvious – in the days leading up to the storm – that this would an unparalleled weather event.

“The good thing for us -- as a state and as an industry and as a people – we are used to dealing with disasters. We know how to recover,” said Betts, a Dallas native. “The insurance industry has responded to a variety of storms in the state and stood ready to respond to this storm.”

So, it’s easy for Texans to talk about statewide storm damage – and storm claims – in terms of past events such as Hurricane Ike or Hurricane Harvey or Dallas hailstorms.

By Kimberly Reeves

Copyright March 04, 2021, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved