Dollars & Sense

$7.8 Billion
The $7.8 billion settlement deal struck by BP Plc with businesses and individuals suing over the massive 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill could speed up payments to thousands of claimants and offers lawyers a potential windfall in legal fees. BP has already paid out about $6.1 billion to compensate about 220,000 plaintiffs from the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, or GCCF, a trust fund administered by Kenneth Feinberg. The latest settlement will be in addition to that.

$3.8 Billion
State Farm Insurance averages about 800,000 catastrophe claims annually, with payouts averaging $3.8 billion. In 2008, when State Farm saw more than one million catastrophe claims, those losses totaled an unusually high $6.3 billion.

1,600
Texas and Oklahoma experienced a record number of wildfires in 2011. The Bastrop fire in Texas alone resulted in more than 1,600 homes and structures being destroyed and 34,000 acres being burned. Persistent and intensifying drought conditions forecast for a large section of the United States for the coming year is expected to intensify and spread wildfire activity in early 2012.

18
Statistics released by the National Weather Service show that 18 Arkansans died in floods in 2011 – the largest amount out of any state in the nation. The state with the second-highest fatality number resulting from floods was Pennsylvania, with 16. Out of all the surrounding states, Missouri had the highest amount with three deaths.

25,083
A recent report from the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) identified 25,083 insurance claims for theft of copper and other metals compared with only 13,861 identified from the 2006-2008 report – an 81 percent increase. The top five states that generated the most metal theft claims, according to the recent report, are Ohio (2,398); Texas (2,023); Georgia (1,481); California (1,348); and Illinois (1,284).

$1 Billion
Owners of thousands of U.S. homes tainted with foul-smelling Chinese drywall agreed to a legal settlement worth $800 million to $1 billion with German manufacturer, Knauf International. Knauf International’s Chinese subsidiary made the tainted product, which has been blamed for producing a stench and fumes that damage air conditioning, wiring and fixtures.