Only in Texas

Christopher Sherman has an Associated Press article about the explosion in McAllen, Texas:

The Texas fertilizer plant that exploded last month, killing fourteen people, injuring more than two hundred others, and causing tens of millions of dollars in damage to the surrounding area, had only a million dollars in liability coverage, lawyers said Saturday.
Tyler lawyer Randy C. Roberts said he and other attorneys who have filed lawsuits against West Fertilizer's owners were told that the plant carried only a million in liability insurance. Brook Laskey, an attorney hired by the plant's insurer to represent West Fertilizer Co., confirmed the amount in an email to The Associated Press, after the Dallas Morning News first reported it. "The bottom line is, this lack of insurance coverage is just consistent with the overall lack of responsibility we've seen from the fertilizer plant, starting from the fact that from day one they have yet to acknowledge responsibility," Roberts said. He expects the plant's owner to ask a judge to divide the million in insurance money among the plaintiffs, several of whom he represents, and then file for bankruptcy.
He said he wasn't surprised that the plant was carrying such a small policy. "It's rare for Texas to require insurance for any kind of hazardous activity," he said. "We have very little oversight of hazardous activities, and even less regulation."
On 17 April, a fire at the West Fertilizer Co. in West, a town seventy miles south of Dallas, was quickly followed by an earth-shaking explosion that left a ninety-foot wide crater and damaged homes, schools (photo), and a nursing home within a 37-block blast zone. Among those killed were ten emergency responders. State and federal investigators haven't determined what caused the blast.
The plant had reported, just months before the blast, that it had the capacity to store 270 tons of ammonium nitrate, but it was unknown how much was there at the time of the explosion.
Roberts said that even without a conclusive cause, negligence lawsuits can proceed. "The law allows courts to presume negligence when something happens that would not ordinarily occur but for negligence," he said. "A fire might be an unavoidable accident, but an explosion of this magnitude resulting from a fire is not an unavoidable accident."
Lawyers will look for any other assets the company might have and search for other responsible parties, he said.

Rico says that, since lawyers are typically a preponderance of legislators, you'd think they'd fix this, even in Texas...