BUSINESS
November 1, 2012 | By Tiffany Hsu
Estimates of the economic losses caused by Hurricane Sandy earlier this week reached $50 billion as experts assessed the costs of severe property damage, shut-down subways and power outages. On Thursday, Eqecat Inc. said it expects storm-related losses to fall between $30 billion and $50 billion. Of that, $10 billion to $20 billion will be insured, according to the firm, which calculates estimates for insurers. Earlier this week , Eqecat had said that damages could reach $20 billion, with up to $10 billion in insured losses.
NEWS
October 31, 2012 | By Seema Mehta
TAMPA, Fla. -- Mitt Romney offered sunny optimism about the nation's future -- and no direct criticism of President Obama -- as the GOP presidential nominee returned to the campaign trail Wednesday after a pause in stumping as Hurricane Sandy battered the East Coast. Romney, Sen. Marco Rubio and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, speaking at a morning airplane hangar rally here, prefaced their remarks with thoughts about the victims of the major storm that killed dozens and left parts of the Eastern Seaboard underwater.
NATIONAL
October 31, 2012 | By Michael Muskal and Tina Susman
New Yorkers took their first tentative steps Wednesday to regain their lives in the stressful aftermath of super storm Sandy despite continuing power outages, a snarled transportation system and the shock of floods and fire. But in parts of New Jersey, across the Hudson River , the new day revealed the extent of devastation. Serious flooding inundated the area around Hoboken, where emergency evacuations continued. Along the Jersey Shore and barrier islands, crown jewels of the state's important tourist injury, entire neighborhoods were crushed, flooded and swamped with mountains of sand.
BUSINESS
October 29, 2012 | By Alejandro Lazo
As Hurricane Sandy heads toward the East Coast, one independent estimate has put the potential exposure to residential property damage at about $88 billion, with 284,000 homes at risk. The real estate research firm CoreLogic released a report over the weekend that warns that the risk of storm-surge flooding has the potential to cause massive damage in seven states and eight metro areas from Boston down to Virginia Beach. PHOTOS: Hurricane Sandy approaches In the broader New York metro area - which includes all five boroughs of New York, northern New Jersey and Long Island - the firm estimates that about 119,312 properties are at risk worth an estimated $48 billion alone.
NATIONAL
August 31, 2012 | Tina Susman
Michael Turner was sitting on his porch when the lake roared in. Hurricane Isaac had not even made landfall, but suddenly water was roaring like a big-river rapid through the neighborhood, swallowing streets that had never seen such flooding, not even after Hurricane Katrina. "It was like a wave," Turner said Thursday as boats plied the still-submerged neighborhood of River Forest in St. John the Baptist Parish, about 30 miles northwest of New Orleans. Some residents here suspect the improved, post-Katrina levee system that protected New Orleans during Isaac may have contributed to their misery by pushing more water back into nearby Lake Pontchartrain.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
August 10, 2012 | By Maura Dolan, Los Angeles Times
The state of California is likely to receive tens of millions of dollars more from insurance companies to clean up the Stringfellow Acid Pits toxic waste dump as a result of a ruling Thursday by the California Supreme Court. In a unanimous decision, the high court said consecutive insurance policies by various companies required each to pay up to their policy limits for damage caused by the Riverside County waste site. The companies wanted to restrict liability to just a share of the damage that occurred during the time each insurer's policy was in effect.