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The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association is quickly becoming the only option available to many Texas coastal homeowners, but will that be enough to get them through a major disaster like a Category 5 hurricane? There are already concerns about TWIA's cash reserves after Hurricane Beryl.
Texas-based insurance expert Ron Snouffer with National Claims Negotiators told KTRH that they already burned through around 50% of their cash reserves after Beryl. He also said that it's "a losing battle" for TWIA to try and keep up with the cash reserves they need to cover storm damages.
He said that nevertheless, TWIA has been trying to come up with the cash they need. He said, "In the fall, they tried to get the state of Texas to allow them to increase premiums by about 10%, because they knew they had a shortfall already."
Snouffer did say that there's a backup in case TWIA runs out of money. He said, "The last time something like this happened, the State of Texas told them they could sell bonds in order to come up with the reserves that they needed."
Snouffer did, however, warn that that wasn't really a viable long-term solution, and it might not be long before coastal homeowners wind up having to just go uninsured due to low availability and high costs.