Texas representative Jodey Arrington discusses the many factors that have caused Texas’s power grid and infrastructure to fail during one of the strongest winter storms in a century.
With billions of dollars in damages expected from the historic Texas winter storm, a state regulator plans to collect data from property insurers to assess the costs of a damaged power grid, roof collapses, broken pipes and other problems, a spokesman said. on Friday.
“We hope it will be a big event, but we just don’t know how big it will be,” said Texas Department of Insurance spokesman Ben Gonzalez, noting that the data query reflects the regulator’s process after other major storms, such as hurricanes .
Former OIL BOSS: THE WINTER STORM LEFT TEXAS IN A ‘SITUATION OF THE THIRD WORLD’
The process, set to begin in the coming weeks, emerges as a company that models the estimated $ 18 billion catastrophe risk for property insurers.
The estimate, by Karen Clark & Co, a Boston company whose software helps insurers predict their catastrophe losses, is for property damage in Texas and other states, a spokesman said.
The intense cold and snow have paralyzed Texas since Sunday, shutting down much of the state’s electricity grid and freezing pipes and waterways, leaving communities across the state without water or forced to boil it for safety.
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Texas Governor Greg Abbott confirmed that all power plants were online on Thursday afternoon. He asked lawmakers to pass legislation to ensure that the network was prepared for the cold climate in the future.
Texas insurers expect “hundreds of thousands of claims,” said Camille Garcia, a spokeswoman for the Texas Insurance Council on Thursday.
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“This can be anything from small fender benders to significant damage to the home because of burst pipes and everything,” said Garcia.