A family was referred to me last year to review their policies. They had home insurance policies on two homes, car insurance for all their vehicles, and an umbrella policy. Everything was straight forward with one exception: the second home. It was originally a barn that had been converted to a home.
November 7, 2000. This was the last day there was not a fatality on a Texas roadway, county road, farm to market road, or highway. For over 13 years, there’s been at least one traffic fatality per day. Over 45,000 people have died on our roadways during this time period …
?2013 has come to a close and 2014 is off and running. Housing in north Texas rocketed last year, however many predict it will cool a bit in 2014. The population of Texas continues to grow at a rapid pace. While the rate of growth is predicted to slow a bit in the coming years, it will still grow.
One of my clients emailed me on Saturday. She’d recently shopped at a Dallas area Target store to pick up some items for Christmas and had just read the news about the credit card breach at Target stores across the country. She was concerned and wanted to know what to do.
Driving in the Dallas / Fort Worth area is always entertaining when we have an ice storm. Those of us who grew up in Texas or the southern parts of the country are just not very good at driving on ice, although I don’t know anyone who is. Aside from the normal slipping and sliding on LBJ or North Central Expressway, we learned that “cobblestone” ice can be just as challenging as sheet ice. There were also some interesting things that occurred with falling or flying ice that led to a number of car insurance claims.
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.
Every 43 seconds a vehicle is stolen in the US. That works out to about 3,000 vehicles a day or almost a million every year. Many of the cars stolen are older car models made in 1990’s through early 2000’s. That’s changing as crooks become smarter and use technology enabling them to defeat electronic locks and anti-theft measures. Some of the technologies even allow them to start your car without a key by using an electronic device that interacts with your car’s computer and start it tapping a screen.
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