It Figures

1 Million

From 1996 to 2008, Oklahoma averaged about 1 million cloud-to-ground lightning strikes each year, and according to the National Weather Service the lightning strike total in the state is on the increase for 2009. In Oklahoma City alone, the number of structure fires from lightning has more than tripled this year compared to last year, the Associated Press reported. Oklahoma ranks third in the nation for total lightning strikes per square mile, the NWS says.

$58.5 Million

Owners of the River West Medical Center in Plaquemine, La., filed a lawsuit against their insurance company for $58.5 million, alleging that unpaid hurricane claims resulted in closure of the facility in May. River West had trouble paying employees after it sustained damage from Hurricane Gustav in September 2008. The civil suit alleges that the medical center would not have closed if American Guarantee and Liability Insurance Co. had honored $5.8 million in claims for hurricane damage. American Guarantee is a subsidiary of Zurich American Insurance Co., which declined to discuss the dispute. AP

10%

Homeowner insurance premiums in Arkansas are expected to rise by an average of 10 percent as a result of extreme weather losses in 2008, the Associated Press reported. The Arkansas Insurance Department said the more than 100 companies that wrote homeowner policies in Arkansas last year paid out $774 million in claims, $206 million more than they took in. The payout in 2007 was $253 million. Premiums jumped an estimated 6 percent last year as insurers paid out claims for a variety of catastrophic events. Allstate subsidiaries’ premium increases in Arkansas averaged as high as 28 percent. The state’s largest home insurer, State Farm Insurance, bumped up its Arkansas premiums this spring by 9 percent. State Farm has paid out $23 million for claims related to January’s ice storm in northwest Arkansas. And it has paid out $12 million to cover damage from a June 30 storm that hit Sherwood residents particularly hard. Home remodel permits there for the month of August shot up nearly 550 percent compared with a year earlier.