Stewart Title Company continued to serve the Houston and Gulf Coast area, as well as global operations in the wake of Hurricane Ike. During the storm and in its aftermath, Stewart's enterprise technology, messaging and telecommunications remained fully operational to serve the global company due to precautionary and pre-emptive steps taken as part of the Stewart disaster recovery plan.

"The Houston home office campus was closed Friday, September 12th -- Tuesday, September 16th, but our business remained open through our remote locations and business resumption center to maintain mission-critical applications," said Murshid Kahn, Stewart Information Services' chief-information-officer. "The storm caused significant damage to some of our local Stewart Title offices, but we were able to remain operational due to adoption of technology such as SureClose - giving us the ability to manage our transactions from anywhere with an Internet connection."

"Our historic Galveston office on the Strand still stands strong after the storm, as it did the 1900 hurricane, the largest natural disaster in the United States - shining as a beacon to Stewart's long history of serving the local area," said Stewart Morris, Jr., the president and co-chief-executive-officer of Stewart Information Services.

The Galveston office was the tallest building to survive the 1900 storm and was enhanced when the city's elevation was raised 108 years ago. Plans for the cleaning and restoration of the historic building are underway.

"This crisis has shown how our company continues to operate on founding family values that tie our associates together," said Matt Morris of Stewart Title Company. "For many of our associates that have experienced significant loss, we have reinstated the Stewart Title Guaranty Company Disaster Relief Fund."

Matt Morris said the fund is available to assist the company's employees with temporary housing, home repairs, insurance deductibles and the basic everyday needs including clothing, food and medical. In addition, Stewart Title is looking into ways that it can help its Gulf Coast community.