[{"_1":2,"_100":-5,"_101":-5},"loaderData",{"_3":4,"_26":27},"root",{"_5":6,"_17":10,"_18":19,"_20":21,"_22":10,"_23":-5,"_24":-5,"_25":10},"user",{"_7":8,"_9":10,"_11":10,"_12":-5,"_13":-5,"_14":15,"_16":-5},"roles",[],"isAuthenticated",false,"isPremium","planName","subscriptionStatus","featureFlags",{},"insightsBudget","isDevelopmentHost","userPreferences",{},"recaptchaSiteKey","6LcvOJcUAAAAAHsB-gPGfGktcRlKpH7OTIU_dMTD","isImpersonating","impersonation","affiliateStatus","isFreedomPortal","routes/v2/article/layout",{"_28":29,"_30":31},"notFound",true,"relatedArticles",[32,76,88],{"_33":34,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":40,"_41":42,"_43":44,"_45":46,"_47":48,"_49":50,"_51":52,"_53":54,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":60,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":66,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":74,"_75":74},"mediaId",6504509,"mediaKeyId","5600462-2a574a3580fd6c6f2dda59f05d965e6a","parentId",5600462,"title","Timber industry losses from Hurricane Helene expose insurance gaps, witnesses say","audioSeconds",601,"startMs",5487000,"endMs",6088000,"viewUrl","/Search/View?dp=1&key=5600462-2a574a3580fd6c6f2dda59f05d965e6a&start=5487&end=6088","thumbnailUrl","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/5600462-2a574a3580fd6c6f2dda59f05d965e6a/thumbnail_5487000.jpg","articleUrl","/articles/6504509/Georgia/Timber-industry-losses-from-Hurricane-Helene-expose-insurance-gaps-witnesses-say","mediaUrl","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6504509-a598a2e439c80c6a76e394362ed95299/orig.mp4?Expires=1770412805&Signature=GIxy3aXmYUvQgLGQ7jFLbXFf9OeyUPHoZJsLndLu1HQmsFuf3d9jEN3qHWMT1oFCfw18ECZIHrkO9NT01yISBoP6UIwoKVu85OoQPnqaoDFcopE3oq4T3iwCg-E6kjteEYtYuilI5hAg-fJ8tzcke5RSSz2qg6xsnKry-GbLvZzn4UArA0S6EhXG0opmcYQnXaZQ-n5Mxqd9xdzRlyZSdOp6-8kIxtmQfHxaoCv~xCBTlhn8oIMyr2UQUwTGff4Ea6tdILVrOHBpPXD4sr7HqlpeiHVPZUDC94BvXxgOwrglnaUTX3GLf3kny9G34xgfnLMBTyhuKos1v1AerWM2lg__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","author","17222","date","2025-08-19T16:16:04.25Z","article","Will Wilson, an insurance principal with Oakbridge Insurance and chair of a commercial-lines committee for the Independent Insurance Agents of Georgia, told the House study group that Hurricane Helene produced massive timber damage and that the open insurance market currently offers little commercial timber coverage.

“...there was over $1,280,000,000 worth of impact that hurricane Helene caused in the timber business,” Wilson said, summarizing a damage assessment conducted with the University of Georgia and the Georgia Forestry Commission. He cited UGA/GFC figures of roughly 8.9 million acres affected and tens of millions of tons of damaged pine and hardwood valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Wilson told lawmakers that most affected timberland is privately owned — he cited an estimate that about 88 percent of damaged acreage is private — and that landowners faced immediate pressure to salvage fallen timber even though a flood of supply drove down prices for standing and salvaged wood. “With respect to pine trees, there was over 26,000,000 tons valued at over $730,000,000 that were damaged,” he said.

Wilson and other witnesses said private-market insurance either does not exist for standard timber exposures, or has been exceedingly limited and expensive when available. “There have been no viable products in the past 2 to 3 years that have been available for purchase,” he said, describing coverage options he said would have been too costly or too restricted to be practical for most owners.

Committee members discussed a prior state aid package; Representative Williams and others referenced state assistance and potential appropriations to support recovery and mitigation. One lawmaker noted an $800 million figure mentioned in prior budget discussions; Wilson said he did not recall the exact appropriation amount but supported exploring public-private solutions.

The chair closed the hearing by saying the committee is examining “ways to either facilitate or look for, special risk pools for public private to find out how we can help in these instances.” Legislators said the timber sector’s scale in Georgia — a multibillion-dollar industry — makes it a candidate for further study and potential targeted programs to protect an essential industry.

No votes or final policy actions were taken at the hearing; committee members scheduled further meetings to gather stakeholder recommendations and examine mitigation or funding mechanisms.","mediaType","Video","parentTitle","Reinsurance for Essential Industries 08.19.25","oneSentenceSummary","Timber owners and independent agents told a House study panel that Hurricane Helene caused more than $1.28 billion in timber damage and that viable private timber insurance products are effectively unavailable, leaving landowners to rely on state aid and market salvage.","taxTitle","Insurance, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Committees, Legislative, Georgia","taxId",17222,"location","Georgia","headline","","shortSummary",{"_33":77,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":78,"_41":79,"_43":80,"_45":81,"_47":82,"_49":83,"_51":84,"_53":85,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":86,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":87,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":74,"_75":74},6504514,"Georgia farmers say federal hurricane crop product and weather-station failures left many unpaid",801,3868000,4669000,"/Search/View?dp=1&key=5600462-2a574a3580fd6c6f2dda59f05d965e6a&start=3868&end=4669","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/5600462-2a574a3580fd6c6f2dda59f05d965e6a/thumbnail_3868000.jpg","/articles/6504514/Georgia/Georgia-farmers-say-federal-hurricane-crop-product-and-weather-station-failures-left-many-unpaid","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6504514-79cc3218e02cbfd55077ebdaf0c14bd7/orig.mp4?Expires=1770412805&Signature=R37ZxfJiMha~fDIW1HrCwd-HDETmaswGOx4Qm3HdBGBuKtdRmnaG29JN-UIQUYF7Kqy9XjnW4xp4A5oi3P1kUEjVf1cqwKcr5MTntktN8G8xPbc-GEpYoE4pFicpkaT8mftnWSgO8w50ox4wNf-X5XOW531qvmbhCrHEES0JLDQaVMSETOXFVfYreVDGmRpFTqgAOeWaqKZXsshf~PiLnwIU28AC9JzEc4EoLZ9f7hQfzbmf077r5HSWQFPC9bmN02dKecM7dmNbPrx036360R-KZo3OBh2Z6lRsdM~ObiaUk8bIGYCLXhrK8BxIKoUsm6Hx-x1kdxgWDMYQLrZC6A__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","Ben Boyd, a row-crop farmer from Screven County and a member of the Georgia Farm Bureau board, described the aftermath of a recent storm and how a new crop insurance hurricane product failed to pay in parts of his county because weather stations were damaged.

“We woke up, and it looked like a movie. I mean, it was terrible,” Boyd said of the storm’s immediate damage in his county. He described clearing roads, checking on neighbors, lost homes and livestock, and nine days without power. He said Farm Bureau representatives inspected his damaged house and left with a check, but that other claims and losses remained unresolved.

Boyd recounted buying a supplemental RMA (Risk Management Agency) hurricane product that required a NOAA station to record specified criteria — a 40-mph wind trigger and six inches of rain — to produce a payment. He said local NOAA stations were destroyed in the storm, and later RMA modeling concluded many farms did not meet the 40-mph wind trigger. “They wouldn't go back and study,” Boyd said of the post-event review; “the modeling showed that we didn't have 40 mile per hour winds.”

Amanda Walker, a crop insurance agent with Alpecin Ag Insurance who works in Coffee County, told the committee that many agricultural lines were hit — timber, pecans, chicken houses, cotton and tobacco — and that a supplemental hurricane product is common in her book. “I would say 95 percent of my book of business takes the hurricane product on top of their regular crop insurance,” Walker said. She said most farmers bought more hurricane coverage for 2025 after recent storms, but that even when the product pays “it does not completely make up these losses. They are still in the hole. They are financially struggling.”

Walker and Boyd highlighted two practical problems that the committee discussed: first, NOAA-sensor and data interruptions that prevented direct observation triggers; second, that the hurricane supplemental product reduces but does not eliminate farm losses when damage also depresses commodity prices or increases cleanup costs.

Committee members asked whether farmers were increasing coverage for 2025 and whether prices for those supplemental products rose. Walker said the RMA sets product prices and she had not observed a price increase for the hurricane product between 2024 and 2025, but confirmed farmers were buying more supplemental coverage.

The hearing included multiple personal accounts of structural damage, displaced families and long-term financial stress. No formal actions were taken; committee members said they will continue to gather information across future meetings and explore mitigation and assistance options.","Farmers and crop insurance agents told the House study committee that a federally administered supplemental hurricane crop product paid some producers but left others unpaid after NOAA stations failed; witnesses described distress, lost roofs and livestock and rising input costs.",{"_33":89,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":90,"_41":91,"_43":92,"_45":93,"_47":94,"_49":95,"_51":96,"_53":97,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":98,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":99,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":74,"_75":74},6504519,"Reinsurance is insurance for insurers, experts tell Georgia study committee",963,1342000,2305000,"/Search/View?dp=1&key=5600462-2a574a3580fd6c6f2dda59f05d965e6a&start=1342&end=2305","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/5600462-2a574a3580fd6c6f2dda59f05d965e6a/thumbnail_1342000.jpg","/articles/6504519/Georgia/Reinsurance-is-insurance-for-insurers-experts-tell-Georgia-study-committee","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6504519-60ce088a502b21a9478e83951bd35ce3/orig.mp4?Expires=1770412805&Signature=OT2U0vrNIPK0eazvyu9p0FtTHrnl2vaKDkF1-F79OckcRNR8e7BGHCUjxkmVIxv2BZlLW8d9egxeXCB1FBfzrStR~V2F6bxW5s-IjcCOfFGvGtKBkQMzxn4Ir93XBPZcgmpGsk1hqgRW2c8Qdwe5648U0qTIhRqoFvpxdvQFuobMoDnVbhxLPtOl28lvknRD-zFsN0DIGvu0if2-nMyhQ03sLQ78RBe6D1piHd90QgC1ES-6FwyyyKKj4d5DN8RV087jitbZ-3Mg7nDYsrLMRBrBpq33v3xu6ZoF21FavrHYB-Yqv37aSYzbWZD1OuojASy6h~WLKactU-5MC1lpkw__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","Jason Rudis, a policy representative with the Reinsurance Association of America, told the Georgia House study committee on reinsurance that “the easiest way to think about reinsurance is that it's insurance for insurance companies.” Rudis, a former insurer and legislative staffer, gave a primer on how reinsurance works and outlined how it is used in Georgia.

The presentation explained reinsurance as a business-to-business arrangement: policyholders pay insurers, insurers retain some risk and pay premiums to reinsurers to cede portions of that risk. Rudis described treaty reinsurance, which covers classes or whole books of business, and facultative reinsurance, which can be bought for individual policies or unusual risks. “Reinsurance is b 2 b,” he said, clarifying that it does not interface directly with policyholders.

Rudis told the committee that reinsurance increases an insurer’s capacity and reduces volatility in results. He used a multi-layer example — an insurer retention, a first working layer and higher excess layers — to show how a large claim can be shared so a primary insurer’s out-of-pocket exposure is reduced and the insurer can continue writing new business.

The presentation also included market analytics showing an uptick in the frequency and cost of billion-dollar weather events in Georgia. Rudis cited NOAA data and said the last three years account for a disproportionate share of costs going back to 1980. He noted that tropical cyclones account for a large share of the state’s insured catastrophe costs even though severe convective storms occur more frequently.

On the role of federal programs, Rudis described the federal crop insurance program as a major reinsurance source for crop insurers, saying the federal government reinsures a large share of that line. He warned the committee that losing federal data streams or weather-sensing infrastructure would hamper modeling and pricing: “we're hoping NOAA doesn't go away because it's vital for the insurance industry to maintain that data.”

Rudis offered policy notes for the committee’s consideration: state mitigation grants, fortified-roof programs and other resilience investments used elsewhere, and caution about state-run catastrophe reinsurance funds. He said state-run funds, modeled on health reinsurance programs, can shift costs to policyholders and urged careful design if Georgia explores that route.

Committee members asked how reinsurance pricing affects local premiums and whether losses in other states (for example California wildfires) could raise costs in Georgia. Rudis said reinsurance is usually priced on national books and that effects vary by market structure: “Florida companies ... are heavily reliant on reinsurance because they're lightly capitalized,” he said, noting that reliance on reinsurance can amplify local pricing effects in states with many smaller, in-state carriers.

The committee heard from members representing rural districts and the minority leader of the Georgia House, who asked follow-ups on pricing outlooks and mitigation programs; Rudis said model vendors and insurers use historical data to forecast forward and that modeling firms are the main source of forward-looking risk estimates.

The session was framed as informational; no formal vote or policy text was adopted at this hearing.","Industry representatives told a Georgia House study committee that reinsurance — insurance purchased by insurers — increases capacity and stability for primary carriers and can blunt the financial impact of major storms; committee members and presenters discussed NOAA data, market trends and federal crop reinsurance.","actionData","errors"]

Article not found

Timber industry losses from Hurricane Helene expose insurance gaps, witnesses say

Georgia farmers say federal hurricane crop product and weather-station failures left many unpaid

Reinsurance is insurance for insurers, experts tell Georgia study committee