Any claim from rising waters, whether from rain, a tidal surge or a
levee breaking, comes under the flood insurance policy,’’ Albright said..
the statement above is true, unless the rising waters are caused by a covered peril. For example, if a gasoline truck explodes next to a dam, and the dam breaks causing a flood which damages homes, it's covered.
I said before that if the water going over the levees was caused by the wind generated from the counterclockwise rotation of the hurricane, it would be covered. LLCF pointed out that if that was caused by the storm surge, there's no coverage. What I've read since then makes me think he's right.
However, if the storm surge was abetted by the wind, there still should be some coverage.
I suspect that N.O. homeowners are screwed. However, it may be that the courts will decide there is some contributing factor and policyholders will be partially compensated.
To me the Mississippi gulf coast is much less clear. Yeah, everything within a couple of miles of the coast was destroyed by the storm surge, but the structures took one hell of a beating before the storm surge got there. I'd bet that many of those people are made whole. |
