Whatever happens, and I'm no seer, let's hope a Texas landfall isn't on Mother Nature's agenda in 2012. TWIA available funds are down to something like $115 million, even as new Ike lawsuits continue to be filed on a weekly basis.
Around 25% of all insurance-related lawsuits filed in Texas in 2011 are Ike-related, and the vast majority of these filings name TWIA as a defendant.
Presumably, Florida Citizens and Louisiana Citizens are in better shape...does anyone have any figures?
Anyway, my prediction for 2012 is as follows:
Eighteen named Atlantic storms, with hurricane Joyce making landfall in the southern 1/3 of Florida on September 13 as a category three.
Joyce will then make a westerly traverse of the Gulf, gaining strength, turning north and making landfall again at about the same place as did Rita in 2005. From there, it will move northeast until New England, where it will combine with the strongest nor'easter on record. At the same time, the jet stream will make an unprecedented dip south thanks to the first recorded El Loco phenomenon, dragging the whole shebang, now at an incredible 820 millibars pressure, back down to Florida, at which time the whole cycle will start all over again.
In the meantime, thousand-year snow events will unfold, blanketing much of the western US in impassable drifts. Hail the size of basketballs will render Orem, Utah a wasteland and destroy all XactAnalysis servers, leaving adjusters nationwide helpless to complete files "in a timely manner". Classes in Morse code will be offered in help rooms and State Farm will issue shortwave radios and emergency ham licenses, although adjusters will be at a loss as to who to actually contact.
Meanwhile, in the Pacific...
Yes, it may very well be the end of the world as we know it.