Texas has been battling an outbreak of wildfires since the beginning of September. The fires have wrought carnage throughout the state, burning more than 1 million acres and more than 1,000 homes. The catastrophe has put enormous pressure on the state’s insurers who have been struggling to mitigate the damage caused by the fires. The disaster is so serious that State Farm Insurance has petitioned the Texas Department of Insurance to designate the wildfires as an official catastrophe. The petition was submitted to the Department on September 12, but regulators…
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Slower Winds Bring Hope to Firefighters Battling Texas Wildfires
BOSTON, Sept. 6, 2011 – According to catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide, fire crews in Texas have fought nearly 19,000 wildfires since the beginning of this year. Approximately 3.6 million acres-an area the size of Connecticut-have been consumed in the state, accounting for nearly half of all the acreage burned by wildfires in the entire United States this year. “The fires have been especially severe because of the 2011 southern United States drought that has persisted throughout the year,” said Dr. Tomas Girnius, senior research scientist at AIR Worldwide. “The…
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