Union & Wallowa County residents see insurance grace period during wildfire emergency

By Garrett Christensen on Thursday, August 13th, 2026 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News

UNION & WALLOWA COUNTIES – A reminder to Union and Wallowa County residents that several areas for both counties were officially added to the Oregon Wildfire Emergency Order list, according to the Oregon Division of Financial Regulation. In addition to the allocation of emergency resources, the order and accompanying bulletin also issued several mandates for insurance providers covering property in the impacted areas, including extended deadlines, grace periods for premium payments, and restrictions on new insurance rates and cancelations of policies as a result of wildfire damage or danger.

As written in points 11 through 14 of the full order:

“11. All insurers must immediately take the following actions for reporting of claims and other

communications about claims with insureds having insurance policies issued, delivered, or

covering a risk in any of the Affected Areas subject to this Order:

Extend all deadlines for insureds to report claims or submit other communications related to claims.5

Take all practicable steps to provide opportunities for insureds to report claims or provide required communications related to claims considering any potential limitations for an insured’s access to communication tools due to wildfires.

12. All insurers must immediately institute a grace period for premium payment for all insurance

policies issued, delivered, or covering a risk in the Affected Areas subject to this Order,

ending no earlier than the first date on which this Order is no longer in effect.

13. All insurers must immediately take the following actions and adhere to the following

directions with respect to cancellations and nonrenewals for all active insurance policies

issued, delivered, or covering a risk in the Affected Areas subject to this Order:

Except as provided in subsection (e), insurers must suspend all cancellations and nonrenewals until this Order is no longer in effect.

For insurance policies not yet cancelled or nonrenewed as of the date of this Order, but for which a notice of cancellation or nonrenewal has been delivered, insurers must withdraw the issued notice and provide insureds with a notice that cancellation and nonrenewal is suspended during the time this Order remains in effect.

For policies in which the insurer is permitted to cancel a policy for underwriting reasons within the first 60 days the coverage is in effect, the 60-day period shall be suspended for the duration of this Order. Insurers that cancel a policy under ORS 742.562(2), 746.687(6), and 742.710(1)(a) must provide the policyholder 30 days’ notice after this Order is no longer in effect.

For policies extended beyond the normal date of cancellation or nonrenewal as a result of this Order, the premium for the extended coverage may be determined by the insurer in accordance with the terms of the policy, if applicable. Insurers may continue to bill insureds for this premium amount, but may not cancel or nonrenew coverage due to nonpayment of the extended premium amount during the time the Order remains in effect.

An insurer may not cancel or nonrenew a policy solely because of a claim directly resulting from the circumstances of the wildfire disaster, except in cases of fraud or intentional misrepresentation of a material fact as prohibited by the terms of the policy. An insurer may cancel or nonrenew a policy if such cancellation or nonrenewal is requested in writing by a policyholder.

14. Nothing in this Order shall be construed to relieve insureds of the obligation to pay premiums that are due under the terms of the insurance policy.”

As of the August 12 bulletin, the following zip codes for both counties fall under the emergency order and temporary insurance requirements (Note that some zip codes cross multiple counties and may be largely based in different counties, with some small overlap in Union and Wallowa):

Union County:

97886 (Tollgate area)
97877 (Southwest Union County area)
97876 (Summerville area)
97850 (La Grande/Island City)
97833 (South & West of North Powder near Baker County border)
97814 (East of North Powder near Baker County border)
97810 (West of Summerville)

Wallowa County:

97886 (Tollgate area)
97862 (Umatilla County border)
97840 (Southwest Hells Canyon/Baker County border)
97827 (Elgin Area/Union County border)

The full emergency statement can be found here: https://dfr.oregon.gov/insure/home/storm/Documents/20260731-wildfire-emergency-order.pdf

The current zip code bulletin, as of August 12, can also be found here: https://dfr.oregon.gov/laws-rules/Documents/Bulletins/bulletin2026-06.pdf