When a hurricane strikes, speed is paramount for insurance

The North Atlantic hurricane season looks set to kick off with a bang. As of Thursday afternoon (July 11), Tropical Storm Barry was barrelling towards Louisiana with the likely prospect of smashing into the Gulf Coast as a hurricane on Saturday. A number of major offshore oil and natural gas production companies, including huge names like Chevron Corp, BP Plc, and Exxon Mobil Corp. have already started evacuating offshore personnel. Jim Rouiller, chief meteorologist at the Energy Weather Group, told Bloomberg: “The first impact is to the rigs and platforms, then the second risk shows up on Friday and Saturday to the refinery areas. The thing that’s going to be really worrisome is the amount of flooding rains across Louisiana. I think the worst is yet to come.”