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	The Johnstown Flood of 1889 We hear a lot about flooding these days. Hurricane Katrina reminded us that those who are exposed to wave wash or flooding need to have federal flood insurance. In 2007, remnants of the first hurricane of the season to make U.S. landfall brought little wind to Texas, but tons of water. Flooding covered the Southwest. Then, weather turned bad in the upper Midwest, the Chicago rivers overflowed, and people took to rowboats. Read More
	Wringing Out the New Year: A Case Study ... Little did I know I wouldn’t see that chair again for five days. The call came from an adjuster asking me to meet him at Enfield High School; there was a water-main break inside. As is normal in the restoration business, I canceled my morning schedule, got in my car and drove to meet him. On the way up to the school, I tried to visualize the size of the loss... Read More
	Nightmare Scenario : Masters of Disaster October 22, 2007, 3 a.m.: Wind-whipped wildfires blaze toward Rancho Bernardo, California, 25 miles north of San Diego. Heavy smoke blankets the local corporate park, home to such giants as BAE Systems, a global defense and aerospace company. With many BAE employees already at work, the entire area comes under a mass-evacuation order. Read More
	Xactware Makes Art Losses Easier Claims News Service, Apr. 14, 9:39 a.m. EST — Xactware and the Chicago Conservation Center have partnered in an effort to make adjusting artwork losses simpler and more efficient for claim and restoration professionals. Read More
	Sounding the Tsunami Alarm The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has put the final touches on a system designed to alert U.S. territories when a tsunami strike is imminent. Read More
	2003 Legislative Meeting Relating To Mold Welcome to Weekend House Call. Today we're talking about mold. Well, it's been in the headlines a lot lately. Ed McMahon, you know him, he won $7.2 million, not in a Publisher's Clearinghouse, but in a mold lawsuit. Beagles are sniffing out mold in California and spore scares are evacuating schools. Is it something you should be concerned about? That's what you're asking yourself? Or is it more hype than hazard? Read More
	The Insurance Industries Largest Risk in 2008 is Hurricanes Urges insurance companies not to underestimate this looming threat SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hurricanes pose the greatest ‘act of nature’ risk to the U.S. insurance industry for 2008, according to EMB, a global actuarial consulting firm. With the hurricane season on the horizon, insurers must prepare for this heightened risk. The threat of hurricanes has been at the top of the U.S. property and casualty (P&C) insurance risk list since Hurricane Andrew devastated southern Florida in 1992, causing an estimated $26.5 billion in damages. Despite a drop in land-falling hurricanes in 2006 and 2007, both years experienced higher-than-average hurricane activity in the North Atlantic. Read More
	PCS Breaks Down 2007 Catastrophe Losses U .S. property/casualty insurers received another reprieve from Mother Nature in 2007, according to catastrophe loss figures recently released by the Insurance Services Office’s Property Claim Services Unit... Read More
	Hurricane season means being prepared Hurricane season means being prepared Business owners can take precautions to minimize their risks and help with c1ean up. Orlando Business .Journal - by Nancy Pfister Staff Writer Just like an unwelcome guest, Floyd didn't clean up after himself. Most insurance policies require policyholders to mitigate their losses as best as possible, but business owners need to be cautious as well. Read More
	Lawmakers Attempt To Set Limits On Mold Public- health officials can’t measure exactly how much mold people can safely be exposed to, but state lawmakers say they want to find a way to set such a standard. Mold is dangerous particularly to people who are allergic to it, toxicology consultant Harriet Ammann told the House committee on environmental health Friday. Certain types can cause sore throats, wheezing breath and eye irritation and increase the seriousness of infections, she said, but it’s difficult to measure how much mold a person has breathed in.” I have yet to see a function-able standard for mold,” said David Williams, a public- health investigator from King County. New York City has set a square-foot measure, in which violations are rated by the size of colonies of the microscopic organism on walls, ceiling and floors, he said. “The problem with that … is that it has little to nothing to do with actual exposure,” Williams added. He said he frequently sees out-of-control mold in apartments and other rental housing without proper ventilation in kitchens and bathrooms. Read More