Insurance industry shakeout has local agencies reeling. (San Antonio)

Insurance industry shakeout has local agencies reeling

Insurance industry executives say the current market is unlike anything they have ever seen. Several negative factors have prompted a growing list of national companies to close local offices or withdraw from Texas altogether.

In its wake, the exodus has left San Antonio with at least 600 lost jobs, scores of ailing insurance agencies and a countless number of consumers scrambling for coverage from other insurers.

Sally Walsh is among those beleaguered veterans. The executive director of the Independent Insurance Agents of San Antonio, Walsh will celebrate her 50th year in the industry in January 1991. To her, the current market is an anomaly.

"This is undoubtedly the worst it's ever been," Walsh said. "It'll never be the way it used to …