Hurricane Florida Homeowners Insurance Extension

State leaders address threat to Valley citrus

Mamoudou Setamou, a citrus entomologist for the Texas A&M University-Kingsville Citrus Center in Weslaco, holds up a leaf affected by citrus greening disease, at left, and leaves affected by zinc deficiency, commonly misdiagnosed as citrus greening, on Jan. 24 in a citrus grove in San Juan. Nine trees has been confirmed to have citrus greening in the grove, and a five mile temporary quarantine has been established around the area. All trees that are found to have citrus greening will be destroyed.

SAN JUAN — The indications are subtle, entomologist Mamoudou Setamou told growers, reporters and government officials as they gathered around a dying tree Tuesday in a San Juan orange grove.

Leaves from the infected trees are a little bit smaller, curve backward rather than inward and begin to show discoloration in the slightly yellowed midrib of the leaf.

It would be difficult for any but a trained eye to distinguish, but the leaves represent a blow to local citrus growers as the first indicators of a potential crisis that could cost the industry millions.

A tree in the grove on Stewart Road, between Moore and El Gato was confirmed Jan. 13 as the first case in Texas of citrus greening, a disease that has wiped out fruit trees in Florida, Louisiana and other states.

The disease does not affect fruit, which remains safe to eat, but causes the trees themselves to wither and die. There is no cure.

There are nine trees here confirmed infected so far, all in the grove on Stewart Road. A quarantine zone has been set up in a five-mile radius from the grove in which no plants can be moved. It includes most of south and central San Juan, Pharr and Alamo, as well as corners of Donna and McAllen.

There are 138 commercial citrus groves across 900 acres in the zone and an unknown number of nurseries and citrus-owning people.

Texas Department of Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples traveled to the Rio Grande Valley to meet with growers, scientists and others Tuesday about the greening discovery.

Long term extension of NFIP long overdue, argue Senators

The National Flood Insurance is in dire need of reform, facing massive deficits and systemic risk issues.  Despite these growing problems, legislators have paid it little attention, kicking the can down the road with short term extensions. The NFIP has not seen a long term reauthorization since 2008, when its last long term authorization expired. Since then, NFIP has survived through short term reauthorizations; the most recent came in December of 2011, with President Obama signing a temporary reauthorization until May 31, 2012.

While originally designed to be self-sustaining, the NFIP currently owes the Treasury more than $18 billion and has no practical way to ever pay it back. In addition, while many of the program’s founders promoted it as a way to promote wetlands conservation, it has, in fact, provided a subsidy for the development of wetland areas.

For the first time in years, real progress towards a long term reauthorization of NFIP with reforms to stabilize its finances and address the issue of repetitive loss properties is now being considered in Congress. One proposal, supported by Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) and Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) would take steps to address several of these issues while creating a long term extension of NFIP.

In a op-ed published February 16 in Roll Call, Senators Vitter and Tester argue that an extension of the NFIP is necessary with added reforms to place it on better financial footing .

From Roll Call:

“The program is currently in an $18 billion hole, mostly because of claims paid out after major hurricanes, including Katrina and Rita, caused damage on an unprecedented scale. The House and Senate bills would take steps to address that shortfall, including a gradual increase in premiums on certain high-risk properties.

We’re working together to ensure that whatever the final bill looks like, it does two specific things. The bill should return the Army Corps of Engineers to its traditional role in levee certification, and, consistent with warnings from the Government Accountability Office, it must not increase premiums so sharply that homeowners are discouraged from purchasing flood insurance. The goal is to make the NFIP as sound as possible, for as many folks as possible, for as long as possible.

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