Latest Coastal Headlines

All the headlines from our Coastal Topic Page, ordered by recency.

FEMA Likely to Expand Flood Zones Along N.J. Coast in Wake of Sandy

Dec 9 2012 // The federal government is poised to expand flood zones and push for increases in building elevations along the New Jersey coast in the wake of flooding from Hurricane Sandy.The Federal Emergency Management Agency was...

AIR Worldwide’s Field Reports From R.I., Conn., and Long Island, N.Y.

Nov 16 2012 // In its ongoing damage survey of areas impacted by Superstorm Sandy, AIR Worldwide’s latest report describes the kinds of damage patterns caused by Sandy in coastal communities in Rhode Island, Connecticut and Long...

Official: Texas Coastal Insurer Is Unsustainable

Sep 24 2012 // The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association is not sustainable and likely won’t be until the state spreads the costs of risks associated with major hurricane strikes beyond just Texans living in coastal areas, the...

Official: Texas Coastal Insurer Is Unsustainable

Sep 14 2012 // The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association is not sustainable and likely won’t be until the state spreads the costs of risks associated with major hurricane strikes beyond just Texans living in coastal areas, the...

Kitzman Gets an Earful in Corpus Christi

Aug 20 2012 // Texas Insurance Commissioner Eleanor Kitzman is hearing an earful from the coastal community as she listens to residents’ concerns in the Corpus Christi area.Coastal occupants are complaining about the cost of...

Coastal Risk Underwriters Enters Alaska Homeowners Market

Aug 16 2012 // Coastal Risk Underwriters (CRU), a member company of Insight Catastrophe Group, has launched a new preferred homeowners program for properties located in the state of Alaska. The program, underwritten by Occidental Fire...

Farmers Raises Rates in Alabama; Pulls Wind Coverage on Coastal Rental Policies

Aug 2 2012 // One of Alabama’s largest homeowners’ insurers is raising rates on property insurance by as much as 35 percent per policy while dropping some 2,900 rental properties along the state coastline as part of plan to...

Flood Risks Rampant across Asia’s Factory Zones; Insurers Concerned

Jul 23 2012 // Global insurance companies are struggling to get a grip on their flood exposure in Asia nearly a year after one of the world’s costliest disasters hit Thailand, with executives fearing an even worse event may strike...

North Carolina Lawmakers Pass 4 Year-Ban on Sea Level Policy Changes

Jul 6 2012 // After North Carolina lawmakers were ridiculed for their attempts to ignore a state-sponsored science panel that predicted a sharp rise in sea levels, they agreed this week to forbid any state agency to make policies on...

New Louisiana Coast Restoration Work to Start in 2 Areas

Jun 25 2012 // A $428 million plan to restore two parts of Louisiana’s rapidly eroding coastline is moving ahead.The commander of the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, Lt. Gen. Thomas Bostick, officially signed the plan during a news...

Texas Windpool to Remain Under Administrative Control

May 17 2012 // Texas’ insurer of last resort for wind and hail in coastal counties will remain under the administrative control of state regulators and it will file for a 5 percent rate increase in August to become effective Jan....

Calif. Senate Panel Oks Coastal Conservancy Climate Change Plan

Apr 10 2012 // A plan to help ensure the California Coastal Conservancy can work on addressing climate change was approved by the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee.Senate Bill 1066, authored by state Sen. Ted W. Lieu,...

Alabama Considers Coastal Depopulation Plan

Apr 2 2012 // The Alabama Legislature is considering a bill that would give up to $2.5 million to private insurance companies in exchange for writing policies for coastal properties. The measure is designed to shrink the size of the...

EU Council Extends Somalia Counter-piracy Operation; OK’s Coastal Missions

Mar 23 2012 // The Council of the European Union has prolonged the EU’s counter-piracy operation Atalanta by two more years, until December 2014. The Council also said that the decision “extended the force’s area of...

Florida Battles Over Beach Erosion, Costs of Replenishment

Mar 19 2012 // The St. Joseph Peninsula is picture-perfect Florida: 17 miles of sugar sand beach interrupted by a few clusters of homes, each with a million-dollar view of the Gulf of Mexico.But according to state officials, the...

Millions in U.S. at Risk from Rising Sea Levels: Report

Mar 15 2012 // Sea level rise due to global warming has doubled the annual risk of coastal flooding of historic proportions across widespread areas of the United States, according to a report from the non-profit research group Climate...

$1M Available For Pacific Islands Coastal Storm Preparedness

Mar 8 2012 // More than $1 million in coastal hazard research grant money is available to communities throughout the Pacific Islands region to help plan for, respond to and recover from coastal storms.The funding will be distributed by...

Maryland Court Sides With Allstate in Coastal Homeowners Case

Feb 20 2012 // The Maryland Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, recently ruled in favor of Allstate. The court upheld a previous lower court’s ruling that the insurer was within its rights to stop writing new...

Maryland High Court Sides With Allstate in Coastal Homeowners Case

Jan 31 2012 // The Maryland Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, ruled in favor of Allstate last week. It upheld a previous lower court’s ruling that the insurer was within its rights to stop writing new homeowners...

Ventura Partners Acquires Barlocker, Forms Coastal States

Jan 19 2012 // Ventura Partners BHR, LP which has acquired the assets from Barlocker Insurance Services of Ventura, Calif. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Barlocker Insurance Services was formally affiliated with the Leavitt...