North Texas spent last weekend digging out from the previous week’s ice storm. The sun finally came out and we got above freezing allowing the ice to melt. By the middle of the week, power was restored to most people, schools were in session, people were working, and the roads were clear.
Winter came early to north Texas last week when the rain turned into sleet and the temperatures plummeted 50 degrees from Wednesday’s high of 80. The ice built up on all surfaces including tree limbs and power lines. Some of the power lines snapped and others were ripped from poles when ice laden limbs broke off from trees and fell onto the already strained lines.
Thursday evening the rain and the temperatures fell as an arctic cold front came through Dallas, Fort Worth, and all of north Texas. Wet roads, power lines, trees, and shrubs began to accumulate ice. The ice built up, weighing down tree limbs and power lines causing them to sag. Limbs snapped from the weight of accumulated ice in the early hours of the morning sounding like rifle shots and landing with thumps in yards, on cars, and on rooftops.
A few weeks ago, an insurance broker made the national news. His name is Jerry Goldman and he was the insurance broker for Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson. Goldman pleaded guilty to mail fraud for overcharging Hanks and Wilson hundreds of thousands of dollars in excess premiums. Over a 13 year period, Jerry Goldman inflated premiums as much as 600% and presented phony invoices to hide the overcharges. He was sentenced to 27 months in prison and ordered to pay about $840,000 in restitution.
On August 12th, Justin and Kasia Purcell of Surprise, Arizona were away from their home and staying with relatives while awaiting the birth of a child. They received a call that night from a neighbor letting them know their home was on fire. They drove the 45 minutes home after that call and arrived to find firefighters putting out the flames to what had been their home. It was a total loss and no one knows what caused the blaze.
The best kind of home fire is no fire. Preventing a fire is much easier than trying to put one out and dealing with the aftermath it causes, but we’re not always able to do that. Sometimes a fire happens and that’s when detection and containment become critical. Here are two pieces of fire safety equipment every home, condo, and apartment should have.
I was helping a new client with his home insurance earlier this week. I’d made the final modifications to the application and sent it to him to be electronically signed. We reviewed it together by phone and he wanted to ask a couple of questions about a notice on the last page of the application. The notice mentioned he had not received the “best” pricing due to a couple of items that were returned on his insurance score including inquiries.
Some people dream of having a home in the country; a place to slow down, smell the air, and escape the busyness of life in the big city. Providing home insurance for someone’s dream in the Texas countryside can present some interesting challenges. Such was the case last week.
I got a call from my realtor friend, John Brooks of JP and Associates, a couple of weekends ago. John was helping a young couple with their first home and they’d just received the inspection report. Everything about the home was perfect except for one thing: it was wired with aluminum wiring.
Subscribe to my newsletter by filling the form below.
A confirmation email will be sent to your mailbox: please read the instructions to complete the subscription.
