Austin is hurricane central for Progressive

bizjournals.com



Thursday September 22, 4:36 pm ET



Progressive Corp.'s regional headquarters in Austin is serving as its national hurricane command center.

In response to Hurricane Rita's projected path of destruction along the Texas coast, Progressive (NYSE: PGR - News) is dispatching claims representatives from around the country to areas that are most likely to be affected by the storm.



Progressive has 1,167 employees at the Austin regional center, with more than 200 devoted to claims associated with Hurricane Katrina, company spokesman William Perry says. The number of employees working on hurricane claims will grow after Rita, he says.



More than 420 Progressive claims representatives are in areas affected by Hurricane Katrina, he says, and others are awaiting "a determination of who we need [and] where" after Rita hits the Texas coast.



"Hurricane Rita presents a particular challenge, given the massive response still under way in the Gulf Coast region following Katrina," says Scott Snapp, national catastrophe response director for Progressive, based in Mayfield Village, Ohio.



"We've already settled about 30 percent of our Katrina-related claims, and we are prepared to deploy as many additional claims representatives as it takes to make sure all our customers' claims are settled quickly and fairly."



Progressive, the fourth largest auto insurer in Texas, operates 28 claims offices across the state and a 220,000-square-foot regional headquarters at Met Center in Southeast Austin.



The Insurance Council of Texas says other insurance companies have begun to mobilize their catastrophe teams to prepare for Hurricane Rita as well.



Council spokesman Mark Hanna says it's too early to tell just where Hurricane Rita will hit, but with Category 4 winds, damage won't be limited to the Texas coast.



"Winds in excess of 100 miles an hour could easily strike Houston and could be felt as far away as San Antonio and Austin," says Hanna.



"Add to that the distinct possibility of tornadoes and flooding, and insurers have the potential to face tens of thousands of claims."



The last major hurricane to strike the Texas coast was Hurricane Alicia, which killed 21 people in 1983, destroyed homes and businesses from Galveston to Houston, and caused $675 million in insured losses.



Tropical Storm Allison in 2001 remains the state's most costly weather catastrophe, dumping more than 2 feet of rain on Houston and flooding key parts of the city. Allison's insured losses reached $3.5 billion.