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Car thieves love Honda Accords. They are also rather fond of the Honda Civic. Both models are ranked as the top two most-stolen cars in America. The fact they are also among the most popular cars has a lot to do with it, of course. The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) keeps track of this data, and there’s quite a lot to keep up with since a car is stolen about every 46 seconds.

The statistics on auto theft note that some newer models are stolen less frequently, thanks to the improvements made in anti-theft technology. But here’s a new wrinkle: People seem to be leaving their keys in the car to make the heist that much easier. The NICB says theft of unlocked cars with keys inside is up 31 percent. What’s up with that?! A quick hop inside the coffee shop with the car running outside could prove to be the start of a long day. Protecting yourself against auto thefts starts by taking the keys with you and locking the car doors — every time.

Two other important tips: Don’t leave your garage door opener and your vehicle registration with your address in the car. Think about it: Thieves have your car, know where you live and can get into your house before you get home.

Car thieves often cultivate local tastes in preferred vehicles. They steal Hondas in Florida, too, but seem to be partial to Ford pickups.

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Returning to your home after a flood is a big part of getting your life back to normal. But consumers and small businesses may be facing a new challenge: mold. What can you do to get rid of it? How do you get the mold out of your home or office and stay safe at the same time? CDC has investigated floods, mold, and cleanup, and offers practical tips for homeowners and others on how to safely and efficiently remove mold from the home.

In 2005, thousands of people along the Gulf Coast were faced with cleaning up mold from their homes after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. One of our first concerns was to let homeowners and others know how they could clean up mold safely. After Hurricane Sandy in 2012, we teamed up with other federal agencies to provide practical advice on mold cleanup. This guidance outlines what to do before and after going into a moldy building, how to decide if you can do the cleanup yourself or need to hire someone, and how you can do the cleanup safely.

Prepare To Clean Up

Before you start any cleanup work, call your insurance company and take pictures of the home and your belongings. Throw away, or at least move outside, anything that was wet with flood water and can’t be cleaned and dried completely within 24 to 48 hours. Remember, drying your home and removing water-damaged items is the most important step to prevent mold damage.

Protect Yourself

We offer specific recommendations for different groups of people and different cleanup activities. This guidance educates people about the type of protection (think: gloves, goggles, masks) you need for different parts of your mold cleanup. It also identifies groups of people who should and should not be doing cleanup activities.

Be Safe With Bleach

Many people use bleach to clean up mold. If you decide to use bleach, use it safely by wearing gloves, a mask, and goggles to protect yourself. Remember these four tips to stay safe:

• NEVER mix bleach with ammonia or any other cleaning product.
• ALWAYS open windows and doors when using bleach, to let fumes escape.
• NEVER use bleach straight from the bottle to clean surfaces. Use no more than 1 cup of bleach per 1 gallon of water when you’re cleaning up mold. If you are using stronger, professional strength bleach use less than 1 cup of bleach per gallon of water.
• ALWAYS protect your mouth, nose, skin, and eyes against both mold and bleach with an N-95 mask, gloves, and goggles. You can buy an N-95 mask at home improvement and hardware stores.

You can take steps to keep yourself and others protected while cleaning up mold after a flood. Make sure to follow CDC’s recommendations so you can return home safely.

Resources

• Homeowner’s and Renter’s Guide to Mold Cleanup After Disasters
• Population Specific Recommendations for Protection From Exposure to Mold
• Basic Facts About Molds in the Environment
• Cleanup and Remediation

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Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among teens according to the Centers for Disease Control’s Teen Driver Fact Sheet. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), 1,678 drivers age 16 to 20 died in motor vehicle crashes in 2014, compared with 1,651 drivers in this age group in 2013.

Drivers age 16 to 20 accounted for 5.5 percent of all licensed drivers, 8.5 percent of all drivers involved in fatal crashes and 12.0 percent of drivers in all crashes in 2014. Seventeen percent of drivers age 16 to 20 who were involved in fatal crashes in 2014 were alcohol-impaired, which is defined by a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 grams per deciliter or higher. The DOT found that more teenagers are involved in motor vehicle crashes late in the day and at night than at other times of the day. Teens also have a greater chance of getting involved in an accident if other teens are present in the vehicle, according to research from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and State Farm.

Drivers In Motor Vehicle Crashes By Age, 2014

Age group Number of licensed drivers Percent of total Drivers in fatal crashes Involvement rate (1) Drivers in all crashes Involvement rate (1) 16 to 20 11,649,902 5.5% 3,803 32.64 1,298,000 11,138 21 to 24 14,358,484 6.8 4,654 32.41 1,202,000 8,373 25 to 34 37,360,848 17.6 8,972 24.01 2,331,000 6,238 35 to 44 35,863,375 16.9 6,894 19.22 1,804,000 5,029 45 to 54 39,497,005 18.6 7,350 18.61 1,705,000 4,318 55 to 64 36,852,500 17.4 5,997 16.27 1,318,000 3,576 65 to 74 23,832,010 11.2 3,314 13.91 640,000 2,686 Over 74 14,616,177 6.9 2,641 18.07 363,000 2,486 Total 214,092,472 100.0% 44,583 (2) 20.82 10,773,000 (2) 5,032

(1) Per 100,000 licensed drivers.
(2) Includes drivers under the age of 16 and of unknown age.

Source: U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; Federal Highway Administration.

View Archived Tables

Motor Vehicle Deaths Per 100,000 Persons By Age, 2014

Source: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

View Archived Graphs

Percent Of Alcohol-Impaired Drivers Involved In Fatal Crashes By Age, 2005 And 2014 (1)

Age 2005 2014 Point change 16 to 20 17% 17% 0 pt. 21 to 24 33 30 -3 25 to 34 29 29 0 35 to 44 24 24 0 45 to 54 19 20 1 55 to 64 13 16 3 65 to 74 7 10 3 Over 74 4 6 2

(1) Alcohol-impaired driving crashes are crashes that involve at least one driver or a motorcycle operator with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 percent or above, the legal definition of drunk driving.

Source: U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

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Now, we know how mean Hermine was. It’s over, except for the cleanup and the lessons learned. Hopefully, residents in the northern parts of Florida learned renewed appreciation for the power of even a Category 1 hurricane. Winds of 75 miles an hour are nothing to disregard.

Tallahassee took a pounding. I bear witness. For more than four hours (seemed longer), the house took a beating, prompting a move to an interior room, away from the windows, in the wee hours of the morning. I heard one massive tree hit the ground with an impressive thud. The second tree must have been hit by lightning. I did not hear lightning last night, but thought a transformer blew since there was a huge flash of light, which burst bright against the darkened neighborhood. (Power went out two hours before the brunt of the storm arrived.)

Overall, property damage seems moderate. Tell it to the trees! Giant pines were felled in the most inconvenient places, like on someone’s roof or over the power lines and into the middle of street.

Driving the streets of Tallahassee is NOT a good idea now, as stoplights are out and far too many drivers don’t know that turns every intersection into a four-way stop. Kind of amazing (scary) to see two, three and four drivers barrel through a busy intersection with all the stoplights gone dark. It’s enough to make one turn around and go back home (which I did!).

Insurance covers the cost of tree damage if the tree fell on insured property. That means if the tree hit the house or a car parked nearby, your insurance will cover it. If the tree fell in the yard and hit nothing but grass, insurance does not apply – because no one has insurance on their grass.

Since Hermine was classified as a hurricane, the hurricane deductible applies. Even if you think the amount of damage you sustained is under the deductible, a call to your insurers to report the damage is recommended because there is a calendar year deductible for hurricane damage. If another storm comes through before the end of the year (heaven forbid!), the amount of damage from the first storm would count toward the deductible.

Insurers are already on the scene helping policyholders through the claims process. If you need advice on what to do or how your policy works, call your insurance professional for guidance. They want to help in your time of need.

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Damage caused by lightning, such as fire, is covered by standard homeowners and business insurance policies. Some home and business insurance policies provide coverage for power surges that are the direct result of lightning striking a home or business. There is also coverage for lightning damage under the comprehensive portion of an auto insurance policy.

With the explosion in the number and value of consumer electronics in homes, such as flat screen TVs, home entertainment centers, multiple computers, gaming systems as well as new smart home technology, it is more important than ever to take precautions.

Preventing Losses

The I.I.I. offers the following tips to protect homes and businesses against power surges and lightning strikes:

1. Install a lightning protection system. A lightning protection system supplies structural protection by providing a specified path on which lightning can travel. When a building is equipped with a lightning protection system, the destructive power of the lightning strike is directed safely into the ground, leaving the structure and its contents undamaged. A lightning protection system includes a “rooftop network” of lightning rods or air terminals at the top of the house connected by a series of down conductors to carry the current down to a grounding network (grounding rods or ground plates, depending upon soil conditions). Lightning protection is not a “do-it-yourself” project, so make sure you contract with a UL-listed lightning protection specialist to install the system in accordance with national Safety Standards. Homeowners may be at an increased risk if they have a Corrugated Stainless Steel tubing (CSST) product in their home and should bring this to the attention of the lightning specialist.

2. Use surge protectors. Today’s sensitive electronic equipment is particularly vulnerable to lightning. To assure the highest level of protection, a UL-listed surge protection device (SPD) should be installed on electrical service panels. Most electric utilities will rent or sell a surge device for the electric meter to “clamp down” on incoming surges. A licensed electrician can also be engaged to put similar equipment on the electrical panel. Installations typically include SPDs for the main electric panel, as well as incoming phone, cable, satellite and data lines. SPDs protect against damaging electrical surges that can enter a structure via power transmission lines. By filtering and dissipating the harmful surges, SPDs prevent electrical fires and protect against electrical discharges that can damage a building’s electrical system, computers, appliances and other systems. UL-listed transient voltage surge suppressors can also be installed to protect high-valued, sensitive electronic equipment like computers, TVs, corded telephones, microwave ovens, washing machines, refrigerators, garage door operators, irrigation system controllers, etc. Keep in mind that power strips offer little protection from electrical power surges.

3. Unplug expensive electronic equipment. As an added precaution, unplug expensive electronic equipment such as TVs, computers and the like if you know a storm is approaching.

Do’s and Don’ts for Lightning Safety

1. When Thunder Roars…GO INDOORS! Take shelter in a home, large building or substantial fully enclosed building, preferably protected with a lightning protection system. Hard topped-vehicles are generally safe shelters, as well.

2. Avoid areas where you will be the highest object. If you are caught in an open field with no nearby shelter, and your hair begins to stand on end (an indication that lightning is about to strike) drop down and crouch with hands on knees, rocking up on the balls of your feet. (The idea is to make as little contact with the ground as possible.) Never lie down flat or place your hands on the ground.

3. Certain locations are extremely hazardous during thunderstorms. Avoid lakes, beaches or open water, fishing from a boat or dock, riding on golf carts, farm equipment, motor cycles or bicycles. Take shelter in tunnels, subways, even ditches or caves if necessary—but never under a tree!

4. If caught on high ground or in an open area, seek shelter in a low area and stay away from trees. A small grove of bushes or shrubs is preferable to lone trees.

5. To avoid side flashes (voltage from a nearby struck object) stay clear of fences or isolated trees. Keep away from telephone poles, power lines, pipelines or other electrically conductive objects.

6. Stay off the telephone! In your home, don’t stand near open windows, doorways or metal piping. Stay away from the TV, plumbing, sinks, tubs, radiators and stoves. Avoid contact with small electric appliances such as radios, toasters and hairdryers.