St. Louis tornado exposed high uninsured rates; Texas regulator's flood response

Parts of St. Louis, Missouri hit by a tornado on May 16 had high rates of uninsured properties, Brad Gerling, research data analysis manager at the Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance, told NAIC's FEMA Working Group, at its summer meeting in Minneapolis on August 12.

After Angela Nelson, director of the department, visited affected areas, the department correlated its home property coverage data with zip codes for those areas, Gerling stated. 

"We found that some zip codes had up to 70% owner occupied dwellings that were uninsured, and 90% of renter occupied dwellings were uninsured," he said. "Knowing these estimates was very important for disaster recovery." 

The department supplied this data to the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency and to FEMA, to secure more disaster relief, Gerling said.

Texas flood response

Six weeks after the deadly Guadalupe River floods in Texas, the state's regulator, the Texas Department of Insurance, is continuing its outreach to those affected and working to mitigate future weather disasters, Randall Evans, deputy director, customer operations, Texas Department of Insurance (TDI), told NAIC's FEMA working group.

"From our experience, a few tools and tactics stand out," Evans said. "Our centralized coordination with our Texas Emergency Management deployment-ready volunteers, our disaster assist response team, comprised of staff volunteers here at TDI, and a well trained surge-ready contact center." TDI's consumer contact center has continued to offer extended hours, he noted.