Refugio County Insurance: Hurricane Country Run from Refugio

Storm history as local geography in Refugio County

Refugio County's exposure, stated the way the federal record keeps it: 21 disaster declarations covering the county since 2000, 13 of them hurricane declarations, 2 of them fire declarations, and 2 of them winter storm declarations. Read as a map, the file says the exposure is spread across the whole county, from Refugio to Austwell, Woodsboro, Bayside, not concentrated in one unlucky corner of it.

Declarations measure frequency, not damage. The damage mechanism here is plain: Gulf storms arrive as wind first and water second, and the water does most of the lasting damage. The mechanism is also why county averages mislead: they average the ridge and the creek bottom into one number that describes neither.

Wind belongs to TWIA in Refugio County

In Refugio County, wind and hail are TWIA's business when the private market will not write them. The county is one of the 14 first-tier coastal counties in the Texas Department of Insurance's windstorm program, designated catastrophe area for its whole territory. Eligibility runs through two documents: a denial from at least one authorized insurer actively writing wind and hail in the designated area, and the building's windstorm certificate of compliance, the WPI-8 or WPI-8-E, from the Texas Department of Insurance. The TWIA policy carries wind and hail and nothing else. No Harris County address test applies anywhere in this county.

Refugio County's most recent entry: July 2024

On July 9, 2024, the federal record added the county's most recent major declaration, for Hurricane Beryl. This page treats it as the reference event because it is recent, dated, and the county's own, three things a regional weather summary is not. The full file it heads counts 21 declarations since 2000, a record long enough that no single storm explains this county's prices.

Before that, the file shows February 11, 2021: severe Winter Storms. Between them, the two dates bracket the period current premiums were priced in, which is why this page gives them a paragraph of their own.

Count the hurricane column and the county's file explains itself: 13 hurricane declarations among 21 since 2000. The TWIA section above and the flood section below are both answers to that column.

The exclusion and the arithmetic in Refugio County

In this county the flood exclusion is not fine print; it is the center of the homeowners policy, the clause the whole declaration record keeps testing. Two facts belong in the same sentence: homes in a Special Flood Hazard Area with federally backed mortgages must carry flood insurance, and a new policy normally waits 30 days before it covers, with a narrow exception when it is bought at a loan closing. The first fact decides who must buy; the second decides when buying is too late.

The premium gets the attention; the deductible does the damage. State it in dollars. Written as a percentage, the deductible looks like fine print. Written out on a $400,000 home, 2 percent is $8,000 dollars that come from the household first. The policy is only as good as the family's ability to produce that sum in a bad week.

Liability pays the other driver in Refugio County

The county's 5 ZIP codes describe a driving county: Refugio holds the courthouse and the schools, and work, worship, and groceries are reached by road. The legal floor is 30/60/25 liability: $30,000 per injured person, $60,000 per accident, $25,000 for property damage. Read it as what it is, a promise to strangers, funded by you. The coverage that answers for your vehicle is comprehensive, which pays when the loss is a vehicle flooded where it was parked when the storm water came up. Personal injury protection and uninsured motorist coverage must be offered in Texas and stand unless you reject them in writing.

The paycheck geography of Refugio County

Paychecks in this county are geographically plain: public employment and schools anchored in Refugio, and the trades, farms, and services spread across Tivoli and Woodsboro and the unincorporated county. Hold one fact about all of it: not one of these coverage files belongs to the household. Group health and life run from hire date to termination date on the employer's say-so, and a family in Refugio that changes jobs without re-checking its other policies has a gap it has not met yet.

Medicare in Refugio County, and the free help at Refugio

The Medicare file, per the CMS September 2026 release: 1,873 eligible residents in Refugio County, 57.66 percent of them in Medicare Advantage. A split that close to even means both routes deserve a fresh comparison at 65: network breadth on the Advantage side, supplement pricing on the traditional side. Free, unbiased counseling is available from the Coastal Bend AAA: 361-883-3935 or 800-252-9240; the agency's toll-free number is the statewide HICAP line itself.

Communities and ZIP codes in Refugio County

Austwell, Bayside, Refugio, Tivoli, Woodsboro.

77950 · 77990 · 78340 · 78377 · 78393