Flood Insurance?

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood has announced that he'll be filing lawsuits against major insurance companies on behalf of Hurricane Katrina victims for damages caused by the storm surge. Homowners' policies usually do not cover damage caused by rising water (flooding), seperate insurance must be bought from the federal government through FEMA. Only a small percentage of homeowners affected by Katrina carried FEMA flood insurance.

Mississippi's attorney general, Jim Hood, has filed suit against five insurance companies. At issue is whether those insurance companies are failing to fulfill their obligations to flood victims.

Marion Williams' insurance adjuster looked at his home's damage and said it's the result of a flood, not a hurricane.

"It was the hurricane. Heavy winds pushed the water in," said Williams.

www.wtok.com...

I'm kind of torn on this...by the exact wording of the contract, it seems the insurance companies don't have to pay. But on the other hand, many of these people paid an extra premium for hurricane insurance, and all this damage was obviously caused by a hurricane. What do you guys think?

Well as usual the people that could afford the extra cost of flood insurance has nothing to worry about.

The people that can only afford the regular insurances are the ones in trouble.

I have a house next to a creek that has flooded significantly in 1994 and 1996, the house has a history it tells that none of those times the flood reached the property.

We don't have flood insurance, but all the houses just a a block away has to have it.

What happened the next time? well I guess we will have to wait and see.

This type of mentality is the one I have.

But when you live in an area that is below sea level and on coastal areas it should not be the responsibility of the insurances if you decided that you don't need flood insurances or Hurricane insurance.

I believe that the debate now is what cause most damage the hurricane flooding or the breakage of the levees.

I believe that insurance are claiming that if the flooding was because the levees it was not their fault.

This one is going to be very interesting specially if some of the insurance companies claim bankruptcy to avoid the pay outs.