Gus > ... you say you empathize with that Dr Marble --do you mean you too don't have a homeowners insurance??!?(2)
As it happens, the homes won't be covered by homeowners insurance if the policy doesn't have a separate clause for flood damage.
aolsvc.news.aol.com
>>The majority of homes in areas slammed by the hurricane have policies that cover wind and rain damage, but relatively few had extra insurance to cover flooding. Insurers are posturing to limit the amount of damages by saying massive flooding in storm-ravaged New Orleans is a separate event from the hurricane itself.
Some carriers have even adopted the phrase "The Great New Orleans Flood" in an effort to make that distinction more tangible.
"If there is a question at some point as to whether the industry should be held responsible for flood insurance, that would change the whole mechanism of how insurance works," said Loretta Worters, a vice president with the Insurance Information Institute, a trade organization sponsored by the property & casualty industry.
"I understand their plight, and insurers have their adjustors out and see what's going on, but we are compassionate up to the point of the policy," she said, "but, that's where FEMA has to step in."
RMS said that $15 billion to $25 billion of its new forecast is insured losses due to flooding. Only about 40 percent of homeowners in Louisiana have insurance protecting property from floods*** - most of them because mortgage lenders require such policies for the term of their loans.
However, the amount of claims could skyrocket if insurers are forced to treat uninsured flood damage as an offshoot to standard homeowners insurance. That's one reason property and casualty insurers are telling Wall Street damages will be limited, so long as they are restricted to just wind-related claims.<<
*** that means 60% are stuffed, notwithstanding that they had homeowners insurance. And apparently most of those owned their own homes. Now, while they are sleeping under a bridge somewhere, they can dream the American Dream -- of their home that disappeared down the toilet. |
