Richard Johnson - Insurance Council of Texas Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Six twenty two is their time here in Houston's born
and he's right in the Hill Country. The damage is
from flooding. I guess that means that if you have
flood insurance, hopefully you're covered. If you don't have flood insurance,
does that mean you're completely out of luck? Richard Johnson
joins US Insurance Council of Texas. I don't know how

(00:20):
many of the people and or how many of the
businesses in the Hill Country is in Kerrville and Kerr County,
Richard have flood insurance. Any idea of what percentage of
the population has flood insurance there?

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yeah, thanks for having me. I mean, statewide, worried about
seven percent, and that really drops off when you come
to inland because it's around fifteen percent when you get
into Houston on the coast. So it's like one percent
in all these inland counties, which is really really low.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Okay, So there won't be a lot of help coming
as relates to flood insurance. Are there going to be
any other insurance opportunities that might be able to help
these people out?

Speaker 2 (00:58):
So there might be. We always go ahead and say
to you know, to at least file a claim. But
you know, flood is just one of those you know,
it's that it's kind of that one peril that has
its own policy. And if you don't have it on
top of your your regular property policy, you know, most
insurance doesn't cover it, where you could get covered as

(01:20):
with auto, if you have comprehensive coverage and you have
damage to your automobile or you know your automobile is
a total loss, then your insurance will cover it.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Okay, I don't know how familiar you are. I'm not
as familiar as I should be with with how the
state generally operates in these types of situations. Sometimes there's
funds that are set up to help people out. Sometimes
some small business administration may make low interest loans available
to some of these businesses to rebuild. So there are

(01:51):
other opportunities I guess for these people to get some help.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
There are, Yeah, the state usually has some sort of
fun like you said, small business administration and then FEMA.
So FEMA runs the flood program, but on top of that,
they usually also offer grants and low interest loans to
be able to help you rebuild. But you know, the
important thing, and you know it's always hindsight is to

(02:15):
look into that flood insurance to you know, and it's
relatively inexpensive. It's about seven hundred bucks a year. That's
kind of the average, and you know that's what's going
to help people rebuild if they have it.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Well, mine is about three thousand dollars a year. If
you can find me a seven hundred dollars policy, I'd
like to find.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
I said, I said, average.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Yeah, I'm on I'm in Freeport though I'm right on
the ocean, so you know, right, yeah, that's obviously.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
The hill Yeah, and I am in the hill country,
and it's it's about five fifty to six hundred bucks
a year.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Okay, Well, I'm sure there are a lot of people
that wish they'd spent that money on that. Now. Richard
Johnson's with US Insurance Council of Texas. Richard, what do
you think this does overall to insurance rates here in Texas?
Because obviously all insurance companies take a look at weather
events that happen here and these types of events, and
that increases the risk of doing business in Texas.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
It does, and it's all based on you know, the
claims ratio versus versus premiums, and so they're gonna look
at that. They'll look at, you know, in the past
few years to kind of predict the future, so it
will have an impact. But again, flood is one of
those things that's a little interesting because it's not covered

(03:28):
by private insurance, but it is. It's an overall risk
that we know about in Texas. We know we have floods,
we know we have hail, we know we have hurricanes,
we know we have tornadoes, and you know, unfortunately that's
we are one of the more expensive states to get
property insurance because of all those things.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
All right, Richard, thanks for joining us. Good to hear
from you, sir, appreciate it. Richard Johnson, Insurance Council of
Texas