Contact
For Immediate Release
Mark Hanna
(512) 326-7616
October 19, 2007
Minimal Losses from Hurricane Humberto
The only hurricane to strike the United States in the past two years caused an
estimated $30 million in insured losses in Texas. The destruction from Hurricane
Humberto’s 85 mph winds occurred primarily in Chambers and Jefferson Counties in
southeast Texas.
Hurricane Humberto formed on September 12, 2007, and intensified faster than
any other tropical storm on record making landfall in 18 hours on September 13, near
High Island, Texas. The storm struck less than 50 miles from where Hurricane Rita came
ashore Sept. 24, 2005.
“Humberto didn’t give Texans much warning, but fortunately it had minimum
hurricane force winds and moved out of the state rapidly,” said Mark Hanna, a
spokesman for the Insurance Council of Texas.
The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (Windpool) reported 85 percent of
its 2,000 claims had been settled at a cost of $12 million. The voluntary market had an
additional 4,000 claims for damage to both residential property and automobiles with
insured losses near $15 million. Settling all of the claims was expected to push the total
of insured losses in Texas to approximately $30 million.
Humberto brought some flooding, but mostly high winds to the southeast corner
of the state before pushing eastward into Louisiana. Rita pushed further north into Texas
with winds in excess of 100 mph winds before turning eastward. Hurricane Rita’s
damage resulted in nearly 400,000 claims and the insured losses for both Texas and
Louisiana totaled $4.7 billion.
The Insurance Council of Texas is the largest state insurance trade association in
the country consisting of more than 500 property and casualty insurers writing business
in Texas.
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