Texas Residents Face Home Insurance Crisis After Devastating Wildfires

The devastating wildfire that hit Texas over the past week, killing two people and burning an estimated 1.3 million acres in the state, is expected to spell disaster for many homeowners whose properties have been damaged by the blaze but whose homes weren’t insured.

The fire, the largest in the history of Texas, ignited last Monday in rural areas surrounding Amarillo. It is yet to be considered completely under control as firefighters keep battling to stamp it out and prevent more homes from being engulfed by the flames.

While the state remains on high alert, the full damage caused by the fire is yet to be understood. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, said during a press conference in Borger on Friday that much of the areas affected by the blaze were “completely gone” with “nothing left but ashes on the ground.”

Many of those who have lost their homes had no insurance, the governor said on Friday, “so there are a lot of people in great need right now.” The governor issued a disaster declaration for 60 counties affected by the fire throughout the state, activating additional state emergency response resources to tackle the critical situation.

Rural Texans are more than twice as likely to go without coverage than urban residents, partially because home insurance premiums have skyrocketed in the state as the risk of extreme weather events has grown more severe with climate change. According to Insurance.com, the average cost of home insurance in Texas is currently $4,142 a year, much higher than the national average of $2,777. That makes Texas the state with the fifth-highest home insurance premiums in the entire country.

A 2021 study by the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University based on U.S. Census Bureau data showed that 11 percent of homeowners in the state’s major metros don’t have homeowner insurance, while in rural areas the number goes up to 26 percent.

Newsweek contacted the Texas Real Estate Research Center for comment by email on Tuesday morning.

On Monday, authorities expressed optimism that the fire, which has burned for over a week, would be contained in the coming days. “The weather is going to be favorable, the winds are going to be much lower, the humidity is coming up, and that’s fantastic news for us,” Deidra Thomas, a spokeswoman for the Hutchinson County Emergency Management, said on Monday.

The Texas A&M Forest Service wrote that the threat of new large wildfires breaking out will decrease mid-week, as “cooler temperatures and less wind will aid in the ongoing suppression efforts for active wildfires.”

But the state is not out of trouble yet. There will still be an “underlying risk” for new wildfires in the Texas Panhandle and South Texas “until spring green-up occurs in the abundance of grass vegetation found in these regions,” the Texas A&M Forest Service said.

The largest fire in Texas over the last week was the Smokehouse Creek blaze in Hutchinson County, which burned 1,076,638 acres and expanded into neighboring Oklahoma. According to the latest update by Texas A&M Forest Service, the fire was only 15 percent contained as of Monday.

Other active wildfires on Monday were the Grape Vine Creek Fire in Gray County, which burned 34,882 acres and was 60 percent contained; the Windy Deuce Fire in Moore County, which burned 144,206 acres and was 55 percent contained; the Magenta Fire in Oldham County, which burned 3,297 acres and was 85 percent contained; and the Roughneck Fire in Hutchinson County, which burned an estimated 300 acres and was 50 percent contained.

The cause of the largest wildfire is still under investigation.

Are you a Panhandle resident whose home has been affected by the wildfire? Contact g.carbonaro@newsweek.com to share your experience.