West 102813

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YOUR ONLY SOURCE FOR REGIONAL BUSINESS NEWS | westfaironline.com

InsuRanCe IndustRY In flux afteR sandY

john golden

INSIDE

October 28, 2013 | VOL. 49, No. 43

Businesses need more preparation

PACE PROJECT • 8

BY MARK LUNGARIELLO mlungariello@westfairinc.com

I oceanfront community known as the Irish Riviera. Nor is it just the sight of the ubiquitous blue pickup truck he drives with the “HABITAT7” plates and the Habitat for Humanity lettering and blueprint design on its panels that has contractors waving and the retired N.Y.P.D. cop who took a

nsurers have paid $18.7 billion for hurricane-related damages since Sandy, making it the third costliest storm in U.S. insurance history, according to a report from Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty Americas, an international corporate insurer based in New York City. Katrina and 1992’s Andrew saw private insurers pay out more, with $48.7 billion and $25.6 billion, respectively. The cost of the storm and the likelihood that other extreme, high-loss weather events could be a low-pressure system away mean not only changes in premiums and policies for coastal homes and businesses but a new approach from the industry as it dishes out lessons learned and braces for the next “big one.” The average commercial claim for Sandy-related damages was for more than $44,500, according to a new insurance industry analysis. And though businesses accounted for half of the privately-insured losses from the storm, insurers say that many businesses are no better prepared today, one year after the storm, than they were before it made landfall. Eight of the 10 costliest storms in insurance history were in the last decade, the report said. FEMA flood maps were updated this year, with an estimated 35,000 homes in coastal areas along Westchester and New York now added to the high-risk flood plain area, according to the New York Daily News.

Building, page 2

Insurance, page 6

DEALS & DEEDS • 9

SNAPSHOTS FROM SANDY • 39

Habitat for Humanity of Westchester’s Jim Killoran, left, and Seshadri Venkatachari in Breezy Point.

Building hopes and homes in ‘Westchester East’ BY JOHN GOLDEN jgolden@westfairinc.com

OUT ON BREEZY POINT on the Rockaway peninsula, people know and like Jim Killoran, and not just for the kind of blue-eyed Irish surname that earns one a familiar welcome in this tight-knit

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