storm insurance

Perry signs bill to aid storm insurance fund

(CHRON) - Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Friday signed into law bills to restructure the state’s windstorm insurance fund, the only property insurer for homeowners and business in 14 coastal counties, and provide financial help to areas still struggling to recover from hurricanes in 2008.

At a bill-signing ceremony in Galveston, Perry said “the past year was especially difficult for this community.”

The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association was depleted after hurricanes Ike and Dolly lashed the coast last year. For thousands of coastal Texans, it became the only wind damage property insurer after private companies decided to pull out of the region following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

It has been funded by policy holders’ premium payments, assessments on insurance companies that do business in the state and reinsurance, a backup policy sold to insurance companies.

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