Grateful: Home Builder's Assoc. Strong Ally in Insurance Reform

by Ana Maria

My heart danced with great joy and I burst out in smiles all over the place the other night. I had received the email announcing the great news that the National Association of Home Builders has endorsed Congressman Gene Taylor’s multiple peril insurance policy proposal. This is a big victory for home and business owners. The NAHB is an incredible ally in helping to restore the financial security many of us believe we have when we buy home or business owner insurance policies.

Taylor and his wife Margaret lost their home in Katrina, were denied wind-related damages, and had to hire Dickie Scruggs to fight their insurance company. A Democrat who represents South Mississippi, Taylor and his staff have worked tirelessly on insurance reform. The news about the homebuilders is a welcome addition to the team, I’m sure.

How fantastic that a major, important, and mainstream player in our nation’s economy “gets it.” The National Homebuilders Association understands the crippling negative economic impact of requiring home and business owners to purchase insurance-in-name-only. The impact? Financial ruin for the individual homeowner or business owner and for all the connecting businesses as well, connecting businesses like . . . homebuilders, developers, architects, contractors, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, painters, bricklayers, and so on and so forth.

Their announcement is a great shot of energy that even I felt when I read the article. I’ve been here only six months, yet I’m already experiencing some energy shifts, what one person referred to as the 6-month burnout. Well, I’m not burn out. I am frustrated as hell, though.

I like to get things done. Period. Figure out what needs doing, set my mind to doing it, and begin moving heaven-hell-and-earth to get it done. In no time flat, voila! It’s done no matter what impossibilities may have been required to overcome.

Katrina Land is a different kettle of fish, however. Like many others, I want to do more, but the reality of the enormity of the obstacles astounds me. Help and leadership that would have been here, say, eight or nine years ago, is no where to be found. The brazen abandonment by those leaders upon whom we depend in national or natural emergencies remains shocking, the stinging betrayal unrecognizably unfathomable.

Six years ago today, our entire nation experienced the devastation that we now refer to simply as 9-11. The loss of life profound. The impact on those families immeasurable. Nationally, we felt vulnerable in ways we had not ever before felt.

This week’s 60 Minutes aired a piece titled The Dust At Ground Zero. Yes, today, many first responders and others suffer from breathing in air that the Bush Administration declared safe. Another Bush betrayal in the face of a national emergency.

The Katrina-ravaged region remains a national emergency. When Bush brags about the billions appropriated to the Katrina region, he fails to mention how much remains in the pipeline hung up by his own executive branch politics and bureaucratic red tape that he could clear—if only he wanted to. Instead, he comes to the area for his annual photo op, speaks his niceties and another round of empty promises, and goes to his next stop to do the same. His is a betrayal of pretension.

That’s the kind of betrayal that the insurance industry has imposed upon us nationally as American consumers of residential and business policies. When an insurance company sells policies that fail to do what we pay our good money for it to do, then the insurance company commits betrayal through pretension.

While it may ultimately come as no surprise that Bush’s corporate buddies in the insurance industry betrayed us, the emotional and financial reality of this betrayal has upended our lives permanently in much the same devastating way as 9-11 upended the nation.

I know that insurance is one of those boring, mundane, non-sexy aspects of our lives. There’s nothing all that dramatic about it, except when we don’t have it. Don’t have it, for example, because when our good neighbor sold wind damage insurance to us, we didn’t realize that we when we needed it most we would not be in good hands after all.

Our good neighbor in whose good hands we had hoped to be should something befall us, had apparently pretended to sell us the financial security we desired. Our money went to secure the industry’s $108 billion profits in 2005-2006, but not to secure our homes and businesses.

Fortunately, help has begun to arrive. For this, we are grateful. The announcement that the National Association of Home Builders is joining forces with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC), and Congressman Gene Taylor (D-MS) creates a stronger foundation to achieve real financial security for America’s home and business owners. As we all move forward together to do our part to solve this financial security crisis, those are good hands to be in.

© 2007 Ana Maria Rosato. All rights reserved.

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Katrina propels insurance factor

Costs skyrocketed after storm
Posted on Sun, Aug. 19, 2007
By ANITA LEE
calee@sunherald.com

Property insurance, once a routine purchase, plays a bigger role in life decisions than it did before Hurricane Katrina.

Insurance had become a factor in what price people pay for houses, and where they live or do business. That's because insurance costs have skyrocketed and policies for hurricane damage are available near the waterfront only through the state wind pool, insurer of last resort for South Mississippi.

By design, wind-pool prices are higher than the private market because of the risk and because the state wants to encourage a private insurance market.

Katrina has focused Mississippi's attention, and to some extent the nation's, on insuring property against natural disasters. The media has followed heated litigation between insurance companies and policyholders. At one time, more than 1,000 lawsuits were pending in U.S. District Court in Gulfport, but that number has been whittled to less than 600.

Oxford attorney Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, of tobacco litigation fame, and his Scruggs Katrina Group team have taken on the most policyholder cases and settled claims with several insurance companies. Insurance companies stand by their claims-adjusting processes, and the courts have upheld their contention that they are not responsible for damage from tidal surge covered under the National Flood Insurance Program.

Debate continues over whether insurance companies also attributed wind damage to flooding to minimize their losses.

Insurance Commissioner George Dale, who has held office for almost 32 years, blamed his recent re-election defeat on Katrina and Scruggs, who pulled out his checkbook to campaign against the commissioner. Many policyholders on the Coast and Dale's opponents claim he has grown too friendly with the industry.

Several bills are pending in Congress aimed at changing the way insurance is regulated and sold. A multiple perils bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor would add wind coverage to the NFIP. Sen. Trent Lott is pushing to repeal the industry's exemption from anti-trust laws. Both sued their insurance company, State Farm, for refusing to cover their losses, but the cases have been settled.

Insurance rates and availability also will continue to make headlines. State legislators and wind-pool officials have just announced some relief. Those who build to the standards set by the Institute for Business & Home Safety, an organization sponsored by the insurance industry, can get a break on the price.

"The credits for fortified construction is a win- win situation," said wind-pool board member and insurance agent David Treutel. "The homeowner spends a little more on the front end, but recovers the extra construction cost over the years through premium credits. The wind pool can charge less for coverage since the building is less likely to suffer damage in a storm. It is a long-term solution for the insurance costs in coastal areas."

Also, consumers willing to assume more risk can lower their monthly premiums by agreeing to pay higher deductibles if their property is damaged by a hurricane.

The wind-pool board recently created new optional deductibles of 5 percent, 10 percent, 15 percent, and 20 percent. Some private companies are offering higher deductibles, too. Independent insurance agents can help consumers who want to comparison shop.

Wind-pool board member and insurance broker Bobby Portwood said, "A policyholder needs to carefully weigh how much deductible he can take on, but it is one more personal option that will soon be available."

Homeowner property insurance costs
Below is an example of coverage costs for a $166,000 home. Estimates are averages.

Dwelling valued at $166,000 (rates vary according to consumer credit rating, fire protection district and home construction)

Homeowners insurance, excluding wind and earthquake: Averages $500 to $700 a year

Wind and hail, Mississippi wind pool (rates vary according to home construction, location north or south of Interstate)2 percent named-storm deductible and $1,000 deductible on other windstorm damage.

First year premium: $2,168 south of I-10; $1,891 north of I-10 (includes $30 inspection fee for first year.)

Flood with $500 deductible $264 a year.

-MATTINA INSURANCE AGENCY INC.

---

© 2007 Sun Herald. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.sunherald.com
Original Sun Herald article published August 19, 2007.

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Katrina-Land: A Lesson in Crossing the Political Divide

by Ana Maria

Today is the day I’ve been looking forward to for quite sometime. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) leads a delegation to New Orleans and over to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to see the state of post-Katrina living. Last year I was living in San Jose, Calif., which is about an hour’s south of San Francisco—the district that Pelosi represents. I wasn’t here for Katrina, though plenty of my family members were. I remember when I read that Pelosi had led a delegation of Democrats to this area last year. I was thrilled!

I became happily stunned when I read that the town hall meeting was in my own hometown of Bay St. Louis, Miss. Then, I became almost speechless beaming from ear-to-ear when I realized that the Town Hall meeting was held in the parish hall of Our Lady of the Gulf Church parish hall. I had attended OLG elementary school and then Our Lady’s Academy from 7-12th grades. I felt honored though my strong separation of Church and State perspective wasn’t all that thrilled with it being held in a Catholic school setting. I have since found out that available venues are, indeed, a premium. Same goes for the one being held tonight. As this year’s delegation will find out, significant feats in recovery and rebuild are wholly absent in New Orleans and all along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

I’m glad that I’ll attend this year. Part of the purpose of the meeting, I believe, is a follow up from last year. Speaker Pelosi had told the Gulf Coast residents that if the Democrats gained control of the House of Representatives, that she would ensure that it would provide hearings for multiple peril insurance and pass it. A woman of her word, Speaker Pelosi has ensured that first two of the formal three-step process has already been met. The Republicans have been fighting this all the way, and the Bush White House has already announced its opposition to it.

Undeterred, Pelosi said she would do her part, and she is making good on her word. A subcommittee of and the full Finance Committee have passed the bill that would expand the federal flood insurance program to include wind. With one policy where American home and business owners can get both wind and flood insurance coverage, we won’t have private insurance industry deliberately failing to pay on the wind insurance policies as the industry has apparently done. We will have the option of having one policy and one carrier for both. Remember, the private insurance companies got out of the insurance business in the 60’s.

When Pelosi returns to the Katrina-ravaged region today, she does so as the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Where are the high ranking Republicans who ought to be attending? For that matter, where were they last year?

From what I have learned, once again, no Republican is attending. Not one. This is more than disappointing. When Katrina hit, the storm blew through Republican and Democratic homes and businesses alike. When Katrina hit, the storm devastated right wing Republican homes and businesses along with Democratic ones. When the insurance industry abandoned and betrayed Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana residents and business owners, it abandoned and betrayed Republican and Democratic ones simultaneously.

This hurricane was nonpartisan. The ensuing financial and physical devastation are nonpartisan. The depression and post-traumatic stress that plagues the areas residents and businessowners are nonpartisan. The cry for assistance is also nonpartisan. I am grateful that the highest levels of Democratic leadership as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi demonstrated last year and this are hearing and responding to our plea. It is the right thing to do. It is the moral thing to do. It is the compassionate thing to do.

Wasn’t it George W. Bush and Dick Cheney who campaigned on compassion? Apparently, it is the Democrats who DO compassion whereas Republicans only use it as a campaign slogan.

Isn’t the Republican Party the one that loves to campaign about being pro-family? Katrina hit families hard, and those families continue to hurt. Guess it isn’t the right year for campaign photo ops and speeches that give the impression of being pro-family, huh? Republicans TALK compassion. Democrats DO compassion.

Isn’t the Republican Party the one that likes to campaign on issues of fiscal responsibility? Oooops. Bush’s FEMA is anything but fiscally responsible. Take their handling of delivering formaldehyde-filled FEMA trailers. On the floor of the House of Representatives, Gulf Coast Congressman Gene Taylor (D-MS) spoke to the issue of the Bush Administration’s fraudulent practices through FEMA.

But those trailers were delivered by a friend of the president by the name of Riley Bechtel, a major contributor to Bush administration. He got $16,000 to haul a trailer the last 70 miles from Purvis, Miss., down to the Gulf Coast, hook it up to a garden hose, hook it up to a sewer tap, and plug it in, $16,000.

Isn’t the Republican Party the one that likes to campaign on issues important to business? When the insurance industry fails to pay on the wind insurance policies that its customers paid premiums, the industry members are not distinguishing between wrongfully denying customers based on whether they are residential or commercial customers. No, sir, they are not. As the insurance industry fails to pay out on its wind insurance policies for which business owners have paid their premiums, these businesses cannot rebuild, cannot open their doors, and cannot return to their customers and employees. The same is true when insurance rates are no longer affordable. To thrive, communities must have businesses: grocery stores, clothing stores, malls, auto repair shops, paint stores, music stores, movie theaters, restaurants, etc.

I have driven all along the Mississippi Gulf Coast from Lakeshore, Miss., on the far western corner along Beach Boulevard across the new Bay Bridge all the way to Biloxi about 40 miles away. I didn’t see ONE gas station. Not ONE. In fact, I hardly saw any businesses or residences or the construction of any of these either. Here we are up against the two-year anniversary. What I did see were plenty of wide open space where homes and businesses were once plentiful.

Tonight will be interesting from a number of perspectives. It’s my second one with Speaker Pelosi. Back in 2001, she held a town hall meeting in her district of San Francisco, which I attended. It was vibrant and alive. I felt exhilarated by the entirety of it all. A Bay kid (yours truly from Bay St. Louis, Miss.) at a town hall meeting in the hub of what the world knows as the Bay area of California—San Francisco. Most people there expressed outrage at the stolen 2000 presidential election.

(Boy, if the Bush White House neglect in Hurricane Katrina doesn’t demonstrate clearly that election outcomes have consequences . )

Tonight’s town hall meeting is going to be a fundamentally different topic. It’s going to be fundamentally different for me, though, because the topic is deeply personal. I’ve lived the post-Katrina life now for five months. I’m native. I needed no tutoring on the customs and values here. I possess them. I need no photos of the pre-Katrina landscape. I have vibrant memories seared in my mind. I need no explanation of why the Mississippi Gulf Coast residents—regardless of our ethnicity or when our ancestors arrived or how, think and act as they do. All of this is in my own DNA. I need no explanation of the values here for these are in my heart.

Throughout the Mississippi Gulf Coast, we are all hard working, humble, modest people who value family, friends, and community. We are among the poorest areas in the country.
Folks around here tend to keep their head down and trudge through whatever obstacles are before them. We are fiercely independent in nature and value self-reliance even when help would make life easier, better. We are forever grateful when someone does assist us. Loyalty is big for us.

Our collective fascination with the intricacies of the political world is on par with that throughout the country. Not much. In the aftermath of the worst natural disaster, though, the only political sophistication that will remain seared in our collective memory is who came here to help. We’re forever grateful to all volunteers whether they came here in person or sent their George Washington envoy (money).

With the private insurance industry rolling over us and Bush’s FEMA, our memory of who helped us will have two faces on it today. Mississippi’s own Congressman Gene Taylor, a conservative, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a progressive. In a way, this is what it really means to reach across the proverbial political divide to get things done on behalf of the American people where ever we live in our nation.

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Post-Katrina Living: Making Do and Good Enough

by Ana Maria

It’s finally here! We have the date on which the contractor will arrive and do the next set of renovations to my mom’s home.

He’ll sand and seal the wood that hasn’t been touched in that way since my parents had the house built 45 years ago. Hang the doors to the bedrooms. Rework the closet doors. Create new doors for the utility room. Put up the crown molding on the ceiling and the floors. I think that about covers this next leg of returning to life BK—before Katrina.

When I arrived back in March, I was shocked at everything. From the total disappearance of so much of my home town here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast through the evaporation of nearly every home and business along the 40-50 miles of beach going east to Biloxi, which is as far as I’ve traveled that way. Then going west to see family in New Orleans was more of the same: destruction, devastation, disappearance, and evaporation.

Clearly, the PR campaign that the Bush Administration has going along with its counterpart in the Mississippi Governor’s Mansion via Haley Barbour doesn’t hold any water. Barbour is the former head of the national Republican Party and good friends with Bush. Naturally, they would support each other’s BS, I mean PR, campaign.

I’ve been here now five months. I have acclimated to a great deal and in ways no one could have convinced me that I would ever acclimate myself. Not that long ago, I was living in the lap of comparative luxury over there in San Jose, Calif.

I lived in a beautiful apartment inside a complex with three “sparkling pools” as its brochures like to brag, two tennis courts, two workout rooms, free tennis and yoga classes, and a sauna—actually two: one for women and one for men. Everything was convenient to my locale. Within a matter of minutes, I could be at any number of malls and full-sized grocery stores. Real grocery stores!

Safeway, Albertson’s, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, PW, Ranch 99—the large Asian food store chain. Plus there were a myriad of farm stands and plenty of smaller ethnic grocery stores. What joy! What bliss! Especially for someone like me that loves to cook and is damned good at it, too.

Today, I have Wal-Mart. In California, I protested with my union friends the atrocious employee policies that Wal-Mart uses. Today, it’s the only grocery around, and I’ve tempered my political preference for the reality life is currently presenting to my family, friends, and neighbors. Today, I go to Wal-Mart to get groceries and rarely think more than twice about it.

In my very first blog entry on the first of May, I wrote, “The best I’ve come up with is that many of life’s routine activities is like walking through glue . . . for miles on end.” That remains the best way I’ve come up with for describing post-Katrina life. As a current example, let’s talk about moving out of the house so the contractor can come in and work on it.

I called around to locate a hotel. Well, there aren’t that many. The one I wanted to book is literally 5 blocks from the house and would be great. It’s booked solid. Oh. We FINALLY get a contractor and his schedule and ours is permitting him to come fix up the house . . . and we can’t find a hotel nearby? I panicked.

Next, I called Hollywood Casino Hotel. It’s almost twice as expensive, and we would not have all the nights we would need. That won’t do. If I’m having to interrupt the routine for an elderly mother who is not in her prime physical condition--though she's sharp as a tack mentally, I want to get somewhere and stay put until we can come home. Nevertheless, I took the rooms I could.

Then, I called the lesser motel down the road a bit. Rooms are plentiful. Great! I booked them and then, I canceled the other reservations. My younger brother recommended that I actually look at the rooms., which I did. He was right. Not good enough.

My hotel hunting began all over again. There are limitations to what has been rebuilt and open for business. Finally, I settled at another casino hotel which is about 25 minutes from the house. There some interruption in our stay, but it is doable. It’s more than good enough for now. It has to be.

The story of post-Katrina life. Making do and good enough.

Personally, I am elated to be going to a hotel with extremely comfortable beds. Little furniture is in the house today. I’ve been sleeping on a twin-sized air mattress. A month ago, it sprung a leak. I repaired it . . . so I thought. I repaired it again. Better.

It would go like this for a few weeks toward the end of which I would find myself in the middle of the air mattress, squarely with my butt and back up against the wood floor. Finally, I gave up. If I’m going to end up on the floor anyway, I may as well just put myself there to begin with and quit waking up oddly contorted.

Believe me, in other circumstances, I would have gone out and bought another air mattress. Heck, in other circumstances, I would have gone out and bought the replacement mattress, set up the bed, and had myself some terrific sleep. If anything, however, these are extra-ordinary circumstances even some two years after the storm.

Back in April when I met the woman who turned me on to her contractor husband, I had thought everything would work out so he could get in here at the end of May at the latest. Then, I kept thinking a few more weeks, a few more weeks.

The whole time, I was slowly being baptized in the post-Katrina way things are. When I’d become agitated at something, I would think to myself, “This is only temporary. This, too, shall pass—quickly. I can handle anything for a little while.”

Or I would think, “I’ve only been at this since March. I can NOT imagine how it has been for those who’ve been back a year or those who actually went through the storm!”

So, when I found myself waking up in the middle of the night in contorted positions due to the deflation of my air mattress, I pulled out one of my old stand-bys and thought, “This is only temporary.” Of course, there is another part of me that says that things like this are part of my post-Katrina experience. My dues, as it were.

Going to a hotel room for a while will be a welcomed reprieve with its wonderful bed that will be heavenly to sleep on, I’m sure. (I’ve actually gone to the hotel and looked at the rooms. Gorgeous! A fabulous bed to sleep on--a new found luxury.)

See, there is no use in buying mattresses to replace the ones that had to be gotten rid of after Katrina had her way with the house. Why buy them and put them up only to have to move ‘em when the contractor gets here? It’s going to be harried enough with all the moving parts to prepping the house for the contractor without adding to the workload.

And so this is how I imagine many others from every walk of life have coped with the dysfunction that has characterized post-Katrina living. Whether finding the courage to go up against the insurance industry or dealing with a contractor that has taken money and failed to show up (a horror story that is far too common) or dealing with not finding a contractor to do the work in the first place, folks around here have more than perfected the art of making do.

Whether sleeping on the floor or putting up with the contamination that is inside the formaldehyde-filled, Barbie doll-sized FEMA trailers or dealing with insurance companies trying to rip off consumers by hiding behind false claims that the 135 plus mile-per-hour winds created not a smidgen of damage to a home or business, folks throughout the Katrina-ravaged region have invented new ways of defining good enough.

But these persistent conditions are not good enough. No one here should have to make do for two long years. It’s not right. As always, the question is how do we improve the situation? What can we do? What kind of political hell can we raise to shake things up and make things better?

Today’s Political Hell Raising Activity

''Fighting an insurance company is like staring down the wrong end of a cannon,'' Dr. Bennett said after fighting his insurance company in New Hampshire.

Dr. Bennett is so very right. We can change this and have the insurance industry itself staring down the wrong end of a cannon when it does its policyholders wrong. We have a great opportunity to impact insurance reform efforts this very month.

During August, our federal legislators are in their home districts. We can contact our Congressional representative and two U.S. Senators by phone or email and ask them to support two pieces of legislation to fix the problem going forward. Many lawmakers will be holding town hall meetings. Going to one and asking for their support is another option.

1. One policy: Wind and Water Insurance Coverage
At the same time, let’s continue to contact our federal legislators to support expanding the Federal Flood Insurance Program to include wind. Remember that the insurance industry begged off of its legal obligation to pay if so much as a smidgen of water came onto a property regardless of the damage that wind had caused. This is wrong.

We can make it so the post-Katrina experience doesn’t happen to other Americans. Informing our federal lawmakers that we support having one policy for both flood and wind coverage is how we remedy the situation for the future. That way future American families and businesses will not be required to make do unnecessarily.

2. The Insurance Industry Must Play By the Same Rules
Robbing us blindly with premiums for policies that they deliberately fail to make good on is, well, NOT good enough. So, let’s contact our federal lawmakers to ask for their support on the proposed legislation that would require the insurance industry to operate under the same rules as every other business in America. End its accidental 60-year exemption from laws governing price fixing and collusion.

That proposed legislation is S. 618 (in the Senate) and H.R. (in the House of Representatives). We must make the insurance industry play by the same rules as other businesses in the United States. This is fair.

Together, we can redefine what is good enough.



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Normalcy Long Overdue in Katrina-Ravaged Region

by Ana Maria

Two days ago, Mississippi voters in the Democratic Primary ousted Insurance Commissioner George Dale, whose cozy relationship with Big Insurance became his electoral albatross. Surely less than a year ago, Dale anticipated his re-election bid to retain the normalcy he had experienced over the last three decades of running for office.

The campaigns for newly-elected Democratic nominee Gary Anderson and his Republican opponent will recuperate from the primary, then redirect their efforts for the usual hustle and bustle of a general election, which will be held this November. Even inside the chaotic nature of every election campaign, there is a sense of normalcy to that chaos—at least for those of us who’ve been in a few.

Here inside the Katrina-ravaged region, we’re still struggling to return to a sense of normalcy. At Katrina’s ground zero, we still have Wal-Mart as our only grocery store for at least a 30 minute ride in any direction. Insurance companies continue to low ball, delay, and fight tooth and nail to break their legal contracts to pay on legitimate wind damage claims. Reliable, solid, and reasonably priced contractors to repair homes are still miraculous to find. FEMA continues to jerk around municipalities.

Jobs are scarce. More scarce are employees. More scarce still? Housing.

Even hotels are difficult to find. On reflection, that makes sense. When Big Insurance decided not to pay wind damage claims for its wind policy customers, it did screwed over all customers—including the hotels.

What is easy to find are the stories of how folks survived in those first few weeks after Katrina hit.

Turning Family Homes into Hotels and Restaurants
Yesterday, I spoke with a young woman who was going into her senior in high school two years ago when Katrina hit. She works as a concierge at one of the local casino resort hotels that re-opened recently. She is working at the hotel as she goes to the local university.

When I encouraged her to stay in school, she looked me squarely in my eyes and said, “Don’t worry. I was valedictorian of my class. I have every intention of getting my degree.” Good. I asked how her family made out in the storm.

She said that her family lives in Guatier (go-sheyah), Miss., near a river, but the family home only had a few shingles fly off their roof. No other damage. Fortunately, her dad owns a local roofing business so repairing was a breeze. Given the family’s relative fortune in coming out of the worst natural disaster, I asked how many people ended up staying at their place.

Notice, I didn’t ask whether they opened their home. I didn’t ask if anyone had asked to come stay with them. Given the innumerable stories that I’ve heard since returning home in March for my, uh, short surprise visit that has since extended past the few weeks I had intended, I knew that it wasn’t a matter of whether, but how many stayed with them.

The young college student told me that after Katrina, her family helped everyone clear out yards and streets. For at least a month, and maybe six weeks, after the storm, though, they didn’t have any electricity. She said that sometimes they were cooking for 50 people—breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They didn’t know how many or who would show up much less when. It was like running a hotel.

Amazing.

My cousin Eric was living in Slidell at the time Katrina hit. Slidell is 30 minutes east of New Orleans and 30 minutes west of Bay St. Louis, Miss.,--one of the three tiny beach towns that comprise Katrina’s ground zero. When the New Orleans levees broke, parts of Slidell flooded. Eric and his immediate family did ok. His older brother, Chip, who lives in Diamondhead, Miss., just a bit up the road from the western part of the Gulf Coast, lost everything. Recently, Eric shared with me part of his post-Katrina story.

One Big Garage Sale—With a Twist
Like the young woman’s family in Gautier, Eric and his wife Lisa had opened their home to Katrina survivors never knowing how many would be eating with them at breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Fortunately, Lisa is a great cook and loves cooking. Eric said it was like running a restaurant because they had to cook big batches of everything.

Every room in his home housed survivors—including a woman in the last month or two of her pregnancy. He felt badly because the better beds were upstairs which she had to climb for the more comfortable sleeping quarters.

Eric holds a leadership position in an international Catholic prayer circle dedicated to Medjugorje. He put out a call to those members who live on the west bank of New Orleans, because they didn’t get hit by either Katrina or the levee breaks. With creative flare, he asked for everyone to clear out their garages. If it isn’t being used, donate it to those who lost so much in Katrina.

Calls poured in. On his lunch hour, after work and on the weekends, Eric would go pick up furniture, baby clothes, appliances, or whatever people had and networked to give it to those who in need.

He said that he had learned of a very elderly African American lady—around 90 years old, if I recall correctly—who had 15 family members in her home, but she had no stove to cook the meals. A call came in about a brand new stove sitting in someone’s garage waiting to be installed in the house. The family decided that the old stove was fine, and they could donate the stove to the effort.

Eric had one lady tell him that she needed a bed. But the catch was that her husband was a BIG man requiring a king sized bed. Oooo. That’s gonna be a tough one. He told her to pray for it. He had not even reached his home when a call came in—someone had a king-sized bed. Did he know who could use it?

Eric regaled me with story after story similar to that one. In one instance, a mother told Eric that just before the storm, she had just finished decorating her young daughter’s room with everything Shortcake and how devastating losing it had been on her daughter. Now the woman was clearly just sharing with my beloved cousin part of her family’s Katrina story.

Yet, before he knew it, he got a call from a woman who told him that her daughter had outgrown her bedroom, which had been decorated in everything Shortcake. Did he know of anyone that could use it?
Around Christmas time, Eric’s boss approached him asking what he is doing on his lunch hour. He had been watching Eric—a longtime, valued employee—dart in an out for a few weeks. So Eric told him of the garage-emptying project he started. The boss was impressed, of course. What did he do? Noting that Christmas was coming up, he asked how he could best help provide for those families. Eric said “gift cards.”

If I recall correctly, the boss put out an email to all the employees. The company ended up donating piles of $25 gift cards, which Eric and his merry band of friends personally delivered to various families so that the parents could shop for their kids. One woman, whom I’m sure represented the reaction from many recipient, simply cried when Eric handed her the package of gift cards tied neatly with a pretty ribbon. She said that she had no idea how to provide some normalcy in her children’s lives. She thanked him profusely.

Another lady opened her door when Eric knocked. She listened as he said what he was there to drop off. He handed her the gift cards wrapped in pretty ribbon, and without a word, she closed the door. Months later, she got word to him that she was so stunned, so in shock, that she couldn’t say a word. She, too, was grateful for the sense of normalcy the gift cards would bring to her children at Christmas.

Normalcy? What normalcy?
We’re just shy of the two-year anniversary from any sense of normalcy here in the Katrina-ravaged region.

Those who live in New Orleans are suffering because of the levee break and the breakdown in our federal government, which has utterly failed to live up to its obligation to the American people.

Those who live outside of New Orleans, but inside Louisiana—such as those in Slidell, and those of us who live anywhere along the 50 miles of the Mississippi Gulf Coast and into Alabama, also yearn for normalcy.

A sense of normalcy. That is what everyone here yearns for. Anytime some small effort is put forth, all one has to do is take a drive down beach boulevard in Bay St. Louis and Waveland, Miss., then cross the bridge and continue down highway 90 from Pass Christian through Long Beach, Gulfport, Biloxi, and Ocean Springs. The stairs leading to no where represent homes that have not been able to be rebuilt. Same with the slabs that are cleared of debris but overgrown with weeds. And the steel beams standing erect waiting for the walls to be returned to their pre-Katrina place.

For all of us here, a sense of pre-Katrina normalcy is long overdue.

As I hear of all these wonderful, arms wide-open stories of folks making do and doing more than good enough to get through this ongoing crisis, I keep thinking why in the living heck George Bush and the vast resources at his fingertips didn’t and still doesn’t bother to lift much of a finger to restore a sense of normalcy.

Oh, I see.

I forgot to look carefully at which finger he and his administration were collectively lifting.



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A Breath Of Fresh Air In Post-Katrina Mississippi

by Ana Maria

Today’s a big day in Mississippi. While there are plenty of contested local races throughout the state—particularly on the Republican side, the insurance commissioner is the most important statewide race because it impacts every individual, family, community, and every form of government inside the state.

Here on the coast, electing Gary Anderson as the Democratic nominee and booting out George Dale from office would clearly send more than a few ripples of joy throughout the Katrina-ravaged region. You see, the insurance crisis impacts so many things that most of us—myself included—just don’t think about until it is pointed out.

For example, I’m hearing how drug and alcohol abuse among teens and adults has dramatically increased since Katrina. Kids have no where to go—not a movie theater, skating rink, nothing. What is there to do? How are they to channel all the usual that comes with being a teen and all the unusual that resides inside of them because of Katrina’s impact?

Their friends may be scattered to the winds. The kids may have had to deal with death of friends or family members. Their homes may be gone, schools destroyed, social groups evaporated. Their families finances shattered because of jobs no longer available since most businesses were lost in Katrina. On top of that, little to no money for rebuilding the family home.

We know that communities everywhere struggle with this issue of teens and having places for them to go and activities to keep them occupied in healthy ways. Put on top of that having lost everything they’ve ever known including their social network that helps them go through those difficult years that transform kids into young adults. No wonder drugs and alcohol are rampant.

This past weekend, I attended a Democratic Women’s annual picnic in which many candidates or their surrogates spoke. I was honored to speak on behalf of Gary Anderson. The park was stupendously gorgeous with water to the one side of us, beautiful homes on another, and the beautiful green grass and trees everywhere.

My pitch was easy—all Gary Anderson voters, of course. Yes, I gave them a political hell raising activity: get out their address books and call all of their friends and family to ensure that they remembered to get out and vote. (I'm the same me on paper and in person—only a lot more lively in the flesh.)

The lady who spoke with me about the teen issue also talked with me about the level of depression hitting teens as well as adults and how she is losing friends to suicide, those who lose hope that their lives will ever get back to some level of normalcy.

I listened as she told me that another issue facing the Gulf Coast is the lack of affordable housing in the area and how the insurance companies have made it so that apartment complexes cannot afford to rebuild and that those that may be rebuilt will have to substantially raise the rent to cover the insurance rates.

I recall talking with a grade school friend some months back. Before the storm, her elderly mother’s apartment rent was about $500 a month. After Katrina, the rent nearly doubled—$900 a month. I don’t know about you, but if my monthly costs for housing doubled, that would be more than a bit difficult to absorb.

Most of us could not absorb it regardless of whether we are Democrats or Republicans, seniors or not yet seniors, single or married, Caucasian, African American, Vietnamese American, Sikh, Latino, disabled veteran, coach, nurse, lawyer or doctor. Whether we are salaried, self-employed, hourly wage or fixed income households, we all have “X” amount of money coming in—if we’re among the lucky ones, that is. Increasing household expenses in such a dramatic fashion makes life more than difficult to say the least.

By the way, my grade school friend’s family who received this shocking increase on mom’s rent? The family is Republican.

Increased teen drug and alcohol abuse, adult depression so overwhelming that suicide seems the only out of the unnecessary misery, skyrocketing financial burdens unfair under any circumstances. And what does Mississippi Insurance Commissioner George Dale have to say about all of this?

“My mistake after Katrina was saying . . . some claims are not going to be paid because of water damage.”

WHAT?! The financial ruin of an entire region because Dale chose to turn his back on these communities, cities, towns, and every person inside of them. The emotional devastation that came as a result of Dale assisting his insurance industry buddies to create the largest financial disaster to hit the area probably since the Great Depression in the 1930s. And all he can think about is that his mistake was blurting out what was that he shouldn’t have gone public with insider knowledge that he was going to let the insurance companies get away with ripping off Gulf Coast residents?

Dale’s comments seem to have come from a set of talking points that the insurance industry would have supplied him.

I don’t know how a public official can be so completely devoid of taking personal responsibility for the ruin his own public policies have had on an entire region. I don’t know how a public official can be so completely devoid of an ounce of genuine compassion.

Who am I kidding? George Dale publicly campaigned on behalf of George W. Bush.

I pray that tonight will bring everyone on the Gulf Coast great joy at having helped to give George Dale his walking papers through electing Gary Anderson as the next Democratic nominee for the state’s insurance commissioner. While the insurance industry will have the wind knocked out of it, electing Gary Anderson will be a breath of air that surely to goodness we could all use especially here in post-Katrina Mississippi.


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Winds of Change in Hurricane Season

by Ana Maria

Today marks the beginning of hurricane season. I know. You thought hurricane season began June 1st. Locally inside Katrina Land, though, we think of hurricane season in terms of when the big storms have hit us, which historically have been in August and September.

• Hurricane Betsy hit New Orleans in September 1965.
• Camille hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast mid-August 1969.
• Katrina hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast on August 29th, 2005.

See the pattern? The hope, of course, is that if we are lucky enough to get to October without a major storm, the construction boom will begin, and a much more robust recovery will ensue. God, I sure hope the general perspective is accurate.

However, the biggest impediment to recovery remains the cost of insurance, as one Gulf Coast county chamber of commerce executive director said. The second impediment she mentioned is the lack of employees, which is brought on by the lack of available housing. Of course, housing is hindered by the lack of insurance: not paying the claims they owe policy holders, jacking up the costs, reducing coverage while jacking up the cost to policyholders, or cutting out of the area altogether. So, insurance remains the biggest impediment to recovery now as well as after this hurricane season blows over.

There we have it. Insurance is the big bugaboo to a vibrant, robust, rock-your-socks off post-Katrina recovery.

When I talked with a shop owner in New Orleans, she told me that neither the storm nor the levee breaks touched her store. Burglars looted it after the after levees were breached, and all chaos broke out across the city. Since then, her insurance carrier no longer offers wind insurance—only fire. Oh, it no longer offers her theft insurance—the only thing she needed to use after Katrina.

Thus the reason customers like yours truly, my niece and her little friend had to ring a door bell to get into the front door rather than the usual walking in off Magazine Street to see what kind of goodies we might like to buy. I don’t know about you, but I would imagine that installing a buzzer to let in customers may just be another barrier to a shop returning to business as usual. Another impediment to business brought to us by the good neighborly types in the insurance industry.

The industry’s pattern didn’t start with Katrina. No ma’am. For a number of years, businesses and homeowners in Florida have been suffering from this insurance affliction. Today, things remain, uh, grim. A few days ago, a Miami Herald article told a story that was quite revealing.

South Florida's business owners, like homeowners, aren't seeing relief from soaring windstorm rates.

What may be around the corner for them: rates that could double or even triple. Some insurers covering commercial property, including shops, restaurants, hotels and offices, have requested rate increases ranging from 142 percent to 225 percent. . . .

These come at a time when insurance at any price is still hard to find. The stakes are huge for South Florida's economy, fueled by thousands of small- and medium-sized companies already struggling with the slumping real estate market and high cost of living. Rising insurance premiums not only strain their balance sheets, the extra costs ripple into consumers' pockets.

Miami Herald
July 29, 2007

A taste of this week’s headlines in the Southeast—including Georgia and South Carolina—are equally telling of the state of insurance for business owners.

Alabama
• Study: Businesses hurt by rising insurance costs Mobile Press Register

Florida
• Florida's insurance crisis hitting businesses hard Miami Herald
• Little insurance relief for businesses Miami Herald
• Florida's biggest storm this summer might not be tropical. Insurance commissioner Kevin McCarty has seen the future of property insurance rates in Florida. And he's preparing for war. St. Petersburg Times
• At least that crisis is fixed - oh, wait ... St. Petersburg Times

Louisiana
• EDITORIAL: Don't gamble on coverage New Orleans Times Picayune

Mississippi
• Home insurance qualify of life issue for Coast Mississippi Press

South Carolina
• Rate hike to hit coast: Homeowners with wind pool insurance to pay an average of 35 percent more The State (Columbia, SC)
• Wind (pool) of change: State Insurance Department OKs 35 percent increase Charleston Post and Courier
• Bigger wind pool to show up in bills: Rates to increase by 35 percent on average Myrtle Beach Sun News
• Wind pool premiums to rise 35 percent (Hilton Head) Island Packet

The Winds of Change for Insurance Reform Picking Up
With the private insurance corporations abandoning American families and businesses en masse, the good news is that that business owners are hailing as a piece of much welcomed news the Multiple Peril Insurance Act that Gulf Coast Congressman Gene Taylor (D-MS) authored in the House of Representatives. Last week among party lines with only a few good Republicans joining the leadership of all the Democrats, the House Financial Services Committee passed the reauthorization bill for the National Flood Insurance Program which included the multiple peril insurance act on which Taylor has been working diligently.

The multiple peril insurance act follows the Democratic House rules of fiscal responsibility—a breath of fresh air after years of Republican spending like a bunch of drunken sailors. Speaker Pelosi demands that new legislation pay for itself, and Taylor’s bill does just that. So anyone who starts yammering to the contrary is, well, full of hot air. Thankfully, the winds of change for insurance reform are picking up speed.

A Miami Herald editorial stated, “One bit of potential good news: Insurance reform is on the Washington agenda.

Another Miami Herald piece reported

“A development last week in Washington could potentially help very small businesses. A U.S. House committee passed a bill that would extend the National Flood Insurance Program to include windstorm protection, although the proposed coverage limits for businesses are low. The bill faces stiff resistance from Republicans, insurers . . . and [r]elief can't come soon enough for many businesses.”

Little insurance relief for businesses
Businesses are finding little relief
in the commercial insurance market:
Rates are still high, and windstorm coverage is scarce.
Miami Herald
July 29, 200

Business owners, particularly small and medium-sized ones, are getting on board to push for insurance relief. These owners are a critical ally in our success to pass this important proposed legislation in the House of Representatives.

If either you or someone you know is a business owner or an employee of a small to medium-sized business, then by all means, mention this critical piece of information when contacting your congressional representatives. They need to know that the multiple peril insurance part of the bill has wide spread support from business owners as well as homeowners.

''Insurance is the oil that keeps the economy going. You couldn't build anything or run a business without it. But it's very frustrating now to find the coverage clients need.''

Pablo Conde
president of A&A Underwriters in Miami

Today’s political hell raising activities are to contact (again, if that is the case) our congressional representatives. When we do, we'll tell them we are voters in their districts. If we are a business owner or work for a small to medium sized business, let's be sure to mention it as well.

Heck, small businesses are the engine that runs our economy. Anything we do to keep those businesses running and keeping their employees on the payroll will assist in putting good food on the tables of America’s families. Having a well-fed nation of people is a good thing—inside and out of hurricane season.


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Insurance: Catastrophic coverage the answer?

July 20, 2007

Fourth District U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor may have an answer for providing affordable coverage for Mississippi Gulf Coast residents and businesses.

His bill, HR 920, to expand federal flood insurance to include wind damage was the subject of three hours of debate before a congressional subcommittee Tuesday and, despite vehement opposition by the insurance industry, seemed to win support.

His Multiple Peril Insurance Act of 2007 received a boost by a letter sent to the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity by Gov. Haley Barbour in support of the bill.

"Hurricane Katrina demonstrated holes in the private insurance market and the National Flood Insurance Program and I support Congress considering legislation which would create a new program in the National Flood Insurance Program to enable the purchase of wind and flood risk in one policy," Barbour's letter said.

Calling it "a failed system," Barbour said the Coast's recovery has suffered because private wind coverage is scarce and premiums in the state's insurance of last resort, the wind pool, or Mississippi Windstorm Underwriting Association, have skyrocketed.

As shown by The Clarion-Ledger's May report "Rebuilding the Coast," until insurance issues are solved, recovery will lag.

Gov. Barbour's Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding and Renewal in its report, After Katrina: Building Back Better Than Ever (www.governorscommission.com), offered a tremendous blueprint in the wake of the storm. But efforts have been stymied by the lack of available and affordable insurance.

"Greed is the main disconnect in this situation," said Taylor, according to the Gulfport/Biloxi Sun Herald newspaper.

"It's easy for them to walk around in their Gucci suits and defend their companies, but the reality is down there on the Gulf Coast, where all of the destroyed homes and property of my constituents are," Taylor said. "Of course, these companies don't want to change the rules that are currently in their favor."

A vote by the subcommittee on the bill to move it to the full House could come before the August recess.

Posters in clarionledger.com's StoryChat Mississippi Insurance Forum are already debating the potential effects of such a bill.

Said one: "Haley has been right on the money for every key Coast issue and we need to encourage him to help get HR 920 passed. If it passes, the Coast will boom and Mississippi will never be last again."

Original article at Clarion-Ledger.

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Saints Fans March All Over Insurance Companies

by Ana Maria

Having grown up in Saints country, I'm typical of the people in the greater New Orleans area. I love the Saints. I was never so proud as I was the day we all got to take the virtual paper bags off of our heads years back. Then, last year the Saints did the area proud by going all the way to the semi finals of the Super Bowl.

In an area completely abandoned* and left to drown in water that by midnight the day before the levees flooded the great city of New Orleans, I am ever so much more proud because on the Saints' Report akking an Forum, fellow fans are yakking and yakking about the Multiple Peril Insurance Act of 2007 that Congressman Taylor (D-MS) has proposed. ("Yakking" is local speak for talking, chatting.) The thread is titled Congress battling with insurance industry over wind insurance policy reform. Click the link and read the thread.

We are known for our fierce loyalty to our local football team come hell or high water. This thread shows our fierce loyalty to the New Orleans--Gulf Coast region and to our country. . . and our street smarts about politics.

* The New York Times article titled White House Knew of Levee's Failure on Night of Storm published February 10, 2006. Greg Palast's Big Easy to Big Empty is the Untold Story of the Drowning of New Orleans including the fact that Bush's White House knew that the levees were breaking and about to drown the city . . . and did not tell officials with the state of Louisiana or the city of New Orleans. To buy a copy, click on the icon on the right side of the A.M. in the Morning's home page.


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Taylor, insurers lock horns over bill

In the end, Taylor's bill is the only viable proposal
Posted on Sun Herald Wed, Jul. 18, 2007





J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., listens to opening remarks on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday during a hearing of the House Housing and Community Opportunity subcommittee, as they consider the Multiple Peril Insurance Act of 2007.

By BRANDON PARKER
SUN HERALD WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON -- One by one, representatives of insurance companies lined up along a crowded testimony table Tuesday to criticize a proposal to create a federal hurricane coverage program before a House subcommittee.

But after three hours of testimony, Rep. Gene Taylor's bill to add coverage for wind damage to the federally funded National Flood Insurance Program stood as the only viable proposal for insurance reform to protect against property losses like those from Hurricane Katrina.

Taylor says that insurers overcharged the NFIP for the property claims submitted by Gulf Coast residents after Katrina. Damage caused by flooding is covered by the NFIP, whereas insurers must cover wind damage under homeowners' policies. Taylor maintains that many companies took advantage of the NFIP, leading to the program's $17.5 billion deficit.

"Greed is the main disconnect in this situation," said Taylor, D-Miss. "It's easy for them to walk around in their Gucci suits and defend their companies, but the reality is down there on the Gulf Coast, where all of the destroyed homes and property of my constituents are. Of course, these companies don't want to change the rules that are currently in their favor.

"People who played by the rules and expected insurance companies to play by the same rules got screwed," said Taylor, whose bill would create financially sound premium levels to make the NFIP self-supporting.

But insurance industry representatives raised red flags about the costs of the proposal.

Ted Majewski, who represented the American Insurance Association, noted a company analysis that concluded Taylor's bill could increase the NFIP deficits by up to $200 billion in one year.

Furthermore, said Robert Hartwig, president of the Insurance Information Institute, the artificially low government coverage rates would encourage development in flood- and wind-prone areas by homeowners, who typically have insufficient catastrophe insurance.

He also pointed out that fewer than 20 percent of South Mississippi homeowners had flood insurance prior to Katrina and questioned whether homeowners would participate in the bill's voluntary federal program for wind and flood damage protection.

"The proposal's actuarially sound rates still do not address the lack of flood coverage penetration," said Hartwig. "It's not what will happen to the private sector, but what will happen to citizens and their taxpayer money."

Despite the concerns voiced by industry representatives Tuesday, Allstate and Nationwide insurance companies have sent letters to Congress calling for an expansion of the federal government's role in catastrophe insurance.

And the chairwoman of the committee, Rep. Maxine Water, D-Calif., chastised the insurance industry representatives for criticizing Taylor's plan without offering a solution to reform the NFIP to add wind damage protection.

Taylor hopes to see the bill approved by the House committee and sent to the full House for a vote before the August recess.

Original Sun Herald article here.

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Democrats Shame, Skewer Insurance Shills

by Ana Maria

Eloquent, down home as well as brutally truthful and direct in a classy manner, Congressman Gene Taylor (D-MS) shamed 6 witnesses who testified at the House of Representatives’ Subcommittee hearing on Housing and Community Opportunity. Each of these witnesses asserted that from the perspective of the insurance industry, the status quo was good enough. One after the other with painful repetition in this four hour subcommittee meeting that I watched online, each of these corporate shills reiterated the same talking points with a single goal in mind: protect the status quo.

I couldn’t have been more proud of Congressman Taylor’s performance if I myself had personally verbally skewered each of those shills. But I sure as hell would love the opportunity, and I guarantee you that I would not necessarily be nearly as nice or classy about the matter. Over and over again, these shills said the same industry-produced talking points.

1. The Federal Government would loose money if it got into the business of covering all natural perils.


2. The private market can take care of consumers.


3. The Federal Flood Insurance Program should be allowed to do its job.

Of course, the whole lot of them operate in a fact-free bubble which attracts those with similar inclination.

For the majority of the country that comprise the rest of us, we live in a factually-based reality in which fairness and protecting families play an important role in our core values. We believe in fiscal sanity and financial security for our families, our businesses and our country. And that is clearly the primary goal that the Multiple Peril Insurance Act of 2007 achieves.

Region-wide, private companies took premiums from families and businesses then deliberately instructed its agents not to pay on the wind policies. That’s called stealing. When the companies deliberately sent erroneous bills to the Federal Flood Insurance Program—bills for which they had engineering reports that specifically stated wind caused the damage, these companies defrauded the U.S. Treasury thus stealing from the American taxpayers through an inflated $23 billion bill.

ABC News was able to obtain a copy from State Farm files of the original FAEC [Forensic Analysis & Engineering Corp.] damage report, which included the image of an attached "Post-it" note that read, "Put in wind file - do not pay bill - do not discuss"

Image at ABC's The Blotter.

In so doing, the private insurance companies have betrayed American families and business owners. These are the values of the Bush White House. However, betrayal and theft are not mainstream American values.

The corporate shills who testified before this Congressional subcommittee had one message: keep the status quo. Basically, these corporate shills testified that insurance companies should be allowed to continue to steal from American families, businesses, and taxpayers. It’s good for their bottom lines, good for their businesses. The testimony that these shills provided merely protected the industry’s $108 billion in profits earned in 2005 and 2006. They had no concern for the very real impact that their corporate thievery had on Americans.

Does any compassionate and sane individual really believe that these obscene profits at the expense of fiscal obligations to those whom the companies promised financial security are not blood-drenched profits? These shills, these men and women who testified are compassionless corporate cronies. Yes, even the FEMA dude recited the same talking points which surely to goodness came from Bush’s buddies in the insurance industry.

Last week, former GOP Chair Marc Racicot, who now heads the American Insurance Association, sent to Congress and the media a fraudulent report with the same messages embedded in its reality-free rambling. Bush appointed Racicot to head the Republican Party in 2001. Racicot chaired the party while remaining an active lobbyist for Enron.

One after the other, in calm and deliberate fashion, Democratic Congressional members skewered those six panelists. Many of these subcommittee members drove home the reality that insurance companies cheated lower and middle income families out of their rightful claims on their homeowner wind policy provisions. These Democratic congressional members talked of families and business owners who had to hire attorneys and engineering firms to fight their insurance companies for claims that should have been paid within months after the hurricane had hit the area.

Today, many of these businesses are not up and running. Many of these families remain living in FEMA trailers or with other family and friends both inside and outside of the region. Is this the American Dream we want everyone to embrace? Cheat and be rewarded? As Taylor said, his constituents played by the rules and got screwed by the insurance companies.

The reality is that insurance companies betrayed their policyholders. The reality is that insurance companies are jacking up their premiums by god awful amounts or abandoning homeowners throughout the country from the Mid-West like Oklahoma or the West, East, and Gulf Coasts.

Look, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, 55% of us live within 50 miles of the nation’s coastline. These towns and cities are where we live, worship, educate our kids, visit with family and friends, and work. Other than the corrupt Mississippi Insurance Commissioner George Dale, who would suggest that over half of the U.S. population ought to move inland?

The enormous impact from Hurricane Katrina should leave Mississippians wondering if they should live "in harm's way."

With insurance companies failing to protect the financial stability of our families and businesses—and insurance commissioners like Dale helping companies to rip us off blindly, we have turned to the federal government to protect us through expanding the government’s federal flood insurance policy to include wind damage. Indeed, some of the subcommittee members suggested that the new legislation should also include earthquakes and fire both of which are continual threats.

Of its own choosing, the market driven insurance industry has failed to protect us.

The era of insanity of profits over people and of financial greed over family financial security is coming to an end. We will beat the drum until we have enough votes in the House and Senate to pass this bill because we must protect America’s fiscal sanity, fiscal stability for our families and businesses.

If Bush vetoes the legislation, then we will again pass this legislation under an expanded Democratic majority after the 2008 election. Then the newly inaugurated Democratic President will sign this legislation, perhaps as part of a legislative package titled something along the lines of Protecting American Families Financial Security.

That is the point of the legislation. Protecting families, protecting businesses.

Additional resources

1. H.R. 920


2. FAQ regarding the Multiple Peril Insurance Act of 2007


3. Rep. Gene Taylor Asks AIA to Retract Report


4. Trent Lott's letter of support

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Leaning On Insurers

Michael Homan's house has been dangerously off-kilter since Hurricane Katrina, but his insurance company has left him twisting in the wind. So he's fighting back.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
By Rebecca Mowbray

Standing in Michael Homan's Mid-City home brings about a slightly queasy feeling of vertigo.

Floors slope sharply to the left, doors quickly slam shut under the pull of gravity and boards that should be at right angles aren't.

The house has been leaning dangerously since Hurricane Katrina, when the Xavier University theology professor felt the house twisting in the wind like a boat in rough seas before one strong gust sent it lurching to the left.

"During the storm it was windy, windy, windy and all of a sudden it got hammered in these big gusts," said Homan, who escaped with his two dogs and the help of some firefighters from Phoenix. He walked most of the way to LaPlace after the levee breaches filled his elevated home with about 3 feet of water.

Homan and his wife Therese Fitzpatrick, a public school teacher, should have been able to repair their home and move on with their lives because they had flood insurance and homeowners insurance on their 215 S. Alexander St. home.

Instead, they're living down the street while two enormous braces prop up their empty home to keep it from falling over. They have filed for Road Home grant money and are suing Allstate Insurance Co. for paying them only $3,944.73 on their homeowners insurance claim for wind damage that they say will cost tens of thousands of dollars to fix. Their house has been deemed a total loss.

"They just nickel and dimed us to death," Homan said. "Our problem was the structural damage. It would have been so easy for them in the beginning to have maxed out the policy."

As the Road Home grant program confronts a $5 billion shortfall, the line of applicants includes people like the Homan-Fitzpatricks, who had insurance to cover most of the Katrina repair bills but found themselves with uncompensated wind damage that has delayed the region's recovery.

Walter Leger, head of the housing and redevelopment task force at the Louisiana Recovery Authority, says he has no idea how many people who were insured but unable to collect on their policies ended up in line for the Road Home program, but he suspects that the Homan-Fitzpatricks are not alone.

"I think there's probably quite a few. They probably are deterred by the fact that to really fight your insurance company, you have to have an attorney. That probably hinders a lot of people," said Leger, a lawyer.

Leger said it's probably easier for people to sign up for the Road Home than to battle their insurance companies, especially since the amount is often only a few tens of thousands of dollars. "The insurance company's job is to give you as little as they can."

The Washington, D.C., nonprofit Taxpayers Against Fraud, said it sounds like the Road Home program is as much a public subsidy to the insurance industry as it is a program to help disaster victims.

"Right now the Road Home program sounds to me like it's being used as an enabler for companies shirking their responsibility and ripping off taxpayers," said Patrick Burns, communications director for the group. "This is a situation in which the system is set up to transfer the liability to the federal government while transferring the profit to the company."

Skinny kitchen

Homan is generally satisfied with the $73,000 he got in flood insurance for his home. He's got his quibbles, such as a few appliances missing from the estimate and his kitchen being measured as an impossibly skinny 2.5 feet wide, but by and large he feels as though the money from the federal flood insurance program will be sufficient to fix his flood damage.

But the homeowners insurance claim with Allstate is a different story. About 10 adjusters visited the house as Homan believes that the Northbrook, Ill., company was trying to drag out his claim and wear him down.

To Homan, the signs are fairly obvious that the slow-rising floodwaters that crept into his house in the wee morning hours the Tuesday after the storm were not the cause of the structural damage, and that the lean of the house was clearly new with the storm.

Unpainted portions of the windows and clapboards were revealed when the house shifted to the left, as the boards separated from where they had resided for most of the past century, revealing unweathered wood. The powerful Greek columns supporting the two story home's upper gallery have split lengthwise under the duress, again revealing unweathered wood. And the house next door is leaning in the same direction as Homan's.

When the team from Haag Engineering Co. finally made it to the house in February 2006 on an inspection that had been ordered in October 2005, the engineers concluded that the tilt was a pre-existing condition. "It was leaning like this before Katrina, is what they're saying," Homan said.

Haag didn't really want to talk with them and was at the property for less than 15 minutes. Homan said he got the feeling the engineers' minds were made up before they arrived. "We knew something was up. They didn't want to talk to us. They were just here for a few minutes," Homan said.

Because the house was at such a lean that he couldn't shut and lock the front door, at some point after the storm, Homan cut a triangle off the bottom of the front door and attached it to the opposite corner of the top of the door to make it fit. When the Haag engineers saw the oddly shaped door, they pointed to it as proof of their conclusion that the damage was long-standing.

"They said, 'Aha. The house was leaning before the storm,' " Homan said. "They ignored all this other evidence."

When Homan finally got the engineering report several months later, it referred to the "Wilson" house and had a picture of someone else's home.

Allstate declined comment on Homan's situation and the Road Home.

"We don't typically discuss individual customer situations," Allstate spokeswoman Kate Hollcraft said. "Allstate has already settled 98 percent of our Katrina-related claims in Louisiana. Each case is considered individually based on the facts and information presented. We continue to work with our customers to resolve any remaining claims."

David Margulies, a spokesman for Haag Engineering, said his company was unaware of any problem with the engineering report of Homan's house.

"Haag is not familiar with this particular individual, but if someone brings an issue to our attention, we will research it and address it," Margulies said.

Sending a signal

Because they needed money to repair and couldn't afford to wait for Allstate, Homan and his family decided to apply to the Road Home program to make up for what Allstate won't pay.

Homan and his family recently were awarded $150,000 from the Road Home: $30,000 to elevate, because their property missed qualifying for ICC by a few inches, and $120,000 for structure damage that was unpaid by insurance.

Despite the Road Home award, Homan and Fitzpatrick are not withdrawing their insurance lawsuit because they feel it's important to send a signal to insurance companies that they need to pay the people who bought policies from them.

"We'd be much happier if they paid our bills instead of taxpayers," Homan said. "I just feel that they've behaved unethically through the whole process. We also have nothing to lose, so we might be their worst enemy."

Burns' group tracks whistleblower lawsuits such as the New Orleans suit unsealed in May that alleges that insurance companies systematically overbilled the federal flood program for hurricane damage while underpaying wind claims. He says the best way for the federal government to help hurricane victims is not to provide rebuilding grants to people who haven't tapped out their insurance, but rather to throw its weight behind a few strong insurance cases against each company to send a message to private industry that the government cares whether it pays its obligations.

"This is a case where government can help, but maybe the best way for government to help isn't to write a check, it's to send a lawyer and a legal brief," Burns said.

Homan and his family applied to the Road Home program because they couldn't wait any longer on Allstate and because the program allows them to recover legal fees for pursuing the company.

Burns applauded Homan and Fitzpatrick for continuing their insurance claim on behalf of others even as their own rebuilding needs have now been addressed.

"He has the immediate need of taking care of this family, and he also has this larger sense of community and national pride. He knows what is right for his family now is wrong for his family over time. My hat's off to him," Burns said. "Will the government please help this man?"

Holding up the money

The Homans' decision to pursue Allstate is also a relief to Louisiana Recovery Authority.

"Good for him," Leger said. "We're all fighting to get more money from Washington. If you assume that his claim is legitimate, the insurance company is holding up Road Home money that could help someone else."

When people get Road Home money, they agree to assign any future insurance benefits to the state of Louisiana, which also reserves the right to pursue insurance claims. Leger said Louisiana Recovery Authority has had several meetings with the attorney general's office about pursuing those claims.

Kris Wartelle, a spokeswoman for state Attorney General Charles Foti, said that key people were out of town and she was unable to comment on what's happening with the Road Home and insurance.

"We are considering looking into some LRA issues. Whether they encompass what you're talking about, I couldn't say," she said.

But Leger takes issue with Taxpayers Against Fraud's charge that the Louisiana Recovery Authority should have prioritized Road Home awards to avoid subsidizing the insurance industry.

Who should have received priority? The uninsured? The elderly? Those with special needs? Those in a certain part of the state? Those below a certain income level? Or those like Homan who took care to buy insurance, but who have been unsuccessful in fighting their insurance companies? Just even identifying people in these groups would have been cumbersome, Leger said.

"I understand the sentiment, and it is a good sentiment, but deciding who gets to the line first is difficult." Leger said. "That's my point: How do you define the most needy?"

. . . . . . .

Rebecca Mowbray can be reached at rmowbray@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3417.


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Drowning in Millions: State Farm, Allstate CEO Pay

Mississippi’s Insurance Commissioner George Dale said Katrina was "the worst natural disaster in U.S. history . . . and put an undue burden on insurance companies.” Oh yeah? Is that how Dale characterizes the obscene tens of millions dollars that State Farm and Allstate paid their CEOs in 2005 and 2006?

As Dale well knows, the company’s financials prove otherwise.

The Insurance Industry Institute pegged the industry's profits at $108 billion for 2005 and 2006. These profits are after companies paid taxes and Katrina claims they didn't pay. These profits are after companies paid out normal expenses such as employee income and benefits. These profits are after companies paid out extraordinary expenses such as their CEOs obscene compensation packages.

These execs denied legitimate policyholder claims stemming from Hurricane Katrina's wind damage. Company memos directed its employees to deny wind claims where ever so much as a drop of water was involved in the damage. [See Wind? Water? More like a Bunch of Hot Air! Also view these insurance documents on the website of Congressman Gene Taylor (D-MS). ]

Collectively the insurance companies sent our government's federal flood insurance program a $23 billion bill, the percent of which is fraudulent is yet unknown. For deliberately hurting Katrina survivors, these CEOs have been handsomely paid. In fact, I'd say that their pay has them drowning in millions. This year, State Farm increased the salary of its CEO by 82%.

"Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ed Rust Jr. got a $5.26 million raise. He earned $11.66 million in 2006 with a base salary of $1.77 million and results-based bonus of $9.89 million, the statement said. Rust made $6.4 million in 2005 and $5.5 million in 2004." -- Insurance Journal

Photo on State Farm Website

Ed Liddy has been "[c]hairman of The Allstate Corporation since January 1999. Mr. Liddy previously served as Chief Executive Officer from January 1999 until December 2006 . . . .” Allstate’s SEC Records Photo by Business Week.

Forbes Magazine reported Liddy’s total compensation for 2006 to be $18 million, and his 5-year compensation total to be $70 million. In 2005, Liddy’s compensation total was $27 million.

When it comes to bloated salaries, these gentlemen are in good hands with their respective companies. All that money didn't buy them ethics, decency, or integrity though. Instead, they acted as really bad neighbors toward their Katrina area policyholders. As for George Dale, he is acting in accordance with his reputation as a bought and paid for political hack of the industry.

M. Dale, if you will kindly look in a mirror, you’ll find the undue burden staring you right in the eye.
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The “F” word: FEMA

Fix
Everything
My
Ass


I first saw this as a bumper sticker on the window of a BIG truck on Hwy 90, Waveland, Miss. A big thank you to Commonscribe over at Daily Kos for this photo.

This is the third in a series of five to help the Democratic Party, particularly its presidential hopefuls, to get the framework right, to broaden its lens through which it views Katrina, what’s stopping recovery, what will speed up a vibrant recovery, and how Katrina affords us the opportunity to transform the basic quality of life for all Americans. ________________________________________________________________

All of the FEMA shenanigans have been unnecessary and avoidable. Unfortunate for us, Mr. Compassionless Conservative Bush apparently has a sadistic side to himself which he plays out in public, on the public, and at the public’s expense. FEMA is a case in point.

Hypocritical Leadership
The White House that is hell bent on handing no bid multi-billion dollar contracts to the largest Bush-Cheney campaign contributors (i.e. Halliburton) has insisted that in the days after Katrina, the ravaged areas impacted should have gone through a traditional bidding process complete with re-bidding when the cost became pricey. Bush’s “do as I say, not as I do” perspective joins his “you’re on your own” Republican version of government. Hypocrisy is no way to run a government.

Bush’s administration insists that the towns and cities of Mississippi and Louisiana paid too much money to remove Katrina’s debris. We’re sure that our cities did pay too much. Private industry price gouging the American public is everywhere. Been to the gas pump lately?

Nevertheless, Bush’s FEMA is questioning whether the federal government will reimburse these Katrina ravaged cities and towns. We’re not talking chump change, either. FEMA owes these cities and towns millions and millions of dollars for disaster clean up costs. The Washington Post reported the following.

St. Bernard Parish, La., just outside New Orleans, is among the communities waiting for a check. FEMA paid the parish about $100 million for debris removal but still owes about $70 million, said David Peralta, the parish's chief administrative officer. St. Bernard also is waiting for $30 million in reimbursement for sewer repairs, Peralta said.

Peralta said FEMA has "kind of implied" that it is looking into whether the parish paid reasonable rates. Peralta defended the Katrina contracts, saying officials tried to solicit competitive bids without delaying the work.

"We didn't have a whole lot of choices in those first few days," he said.

It’s a toss up on whether the Bush Administration’s hypocrisy or compassionless actions are more galling.

Promises, Promises
FEMA promised cities and counties money to repair sewers and drains, pave streets and rebuild schools. Bush’s FEMA has been reneging on its word. What a shock, huh?! On Good Morning America, Bush stated "I hope people don't play politics at this time of a natural disaster the likes of which this country has never seen." Yeah, well, if actions speak louder than words, the actions of Bush’s FEMA are screeching loudly, indeed.

Let’s look at what FEMA has been doing to Hancock County, Miss., the county where I was born and raised and from which I am now blogging and podcasting. Speaking on the floor of the House of Representatives, Gulf Coast Congressman Gene Taylor (D-MS) described Hancock County as a place “where 90% of the residents lost everything, or at least substantial damage to their home.” [See the video.] Like everywhere else in Katrina Land, any and all assistance is immensely appreciated.

So when FEMA promised the county $33 million to rebuild a school, this was terrific news! For over 22 months, FEMA repeatedly reassured the county that the money was theirs, and the county complied with the agency’s requirements. The county board of supervisors, families, and community depend on that school getting up and running as soon as possible.

The Sea Coast Echo reported, “Repeatedly over the past 22 months, FEMA officials said in public meetings the school board could build the schools.” Then, just as the county was about to break ground, Bush’s FEMA reneged on the deal pulling the $33 million rug out from under everyone.

"FEMA has changed the rules in the middle of the game. Every single step in the process involved reps from MEMA [Mississippi Emergency Management Agency] and FEMA. It was our understanding from them that we could build above the ABFE [Advisory Base Flood Elevation]."

School District Attorney Mark Alexander

Sea Coast Echo

These and other financial horror stories are happening on Bush’s watch. Appropriate leadership from the White House would solve this FEMA issue. Alas, we don’t have that. We have Bush and Cheney.

Mr. Compassionless Vetoed Katrina Financial Relief

When he vetoed the Iraq Accountability Act, Bush also vetoed money for Katrina relief including waiving the 10% matching requirement that was putting a great deal of unnecessary burden on the towns and cities in the Katrina-ravaged area.

Cities, towns, and counties didn’t have an extra 10% hanging around to match the federal monies needed to rebuild. Bush should have automatically waived the requirement like was done for New York after 9/11. He did not. Thankfully, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) included the waiver in the Iraq Accountability Act. When Bush vetoed that legislation, the good Democratic leaders attached the waiver to another bill which Bush finally signed.

H-E-L-L-O?! Anybody there?!
At the celebration of the new bridge, I believe it was Bay St. Louis Mayor Eddie Favre who said that the foot of the bridge was the only place in the Bay-Waveland area where there was some cell phone coverage. (See bridge photos below.)

Paul J. Richards/Agence France-Press Getty Images.
New York Times
A seven-minute dash across the bay bridgebecame a 45-minute commute around it.









Photos from U.S. Surface Transportation Board
Bay Bridge after Katrina. Because the Bush Administration had no emergency communication system in place, the only cell phone reception was at the foot of this bridge. Image from Waveland and Bay St. Louis After Katrina.

Because the Bush Administration had no emergency communication system in place, the only cell phone reception was at the foot of this bridge.

He told the story of walking to the foot of the bridge where others had also arrived to try to talk with their family and friends across the country to let them know they were ok.

He overheard a man tell his brother, “no, mom didn’t make it. She died in the storm.” The story chokes me up even as I write this deeply personal and sad story, one that is surely to goodness shared by others, too many others.

Can you imagine the horror of going through the storm, losing loved ones in the hurricane’s wrath, and having to walk through miles and miles of debris to get to the one place where it was rumored that cell phones work? Then, calling family and friends to talk of the deeply personal tragedy and to do so without the privacy we normally expect with personal news of this nature? The only comfort, perhaps, was that everyone was in the same boat, no pun intended.

Where was the nation’s emergency communication system?! This isn’t leadership. This is the result of the absence of leadership. Another of George Bush’s FEMA and homeland security failures. Bush already skimps on protecting our ports, railroads, nuclear facilities, and the like. Skimping on developing a national emergency communication system is par for the course from a guy who didn't get into the White House in a forthright manner in the first place.

So when FEMA got here, what did they do to facilitate these good people in getting all the help FEMA had to offer? Their idea was to somehow set up shop where folks could come to them and they would provide phone numbers to call FEMA and web addresses to apply for FEMA assistance.

Never mind that folks had no electricity, no phone lines, and, of course, no Internet access. Whether computers had survived the devastation was another matter altogether and another area in which Bush’s brilliant folks had no concern or care on the impact to American families. Oh, yeah, remember that the cars had been submerged in the salt water pushed ashore. Transportation was scarce.

Since these federal fools couldn’t look around and see the obvious, Congressman Taylor’s office suggested that rather than waiting for folks to walk for hours on end to get to where FEMA set up a make shift station, that these bureaucrats travel by foot with a pad of paper and a pen and from each person impacted take down the information that they themselves could then input on behalf of the survivors whenever the feds were able to finally get to computers that worked.

I don’t know whether Bush’s agency actually listened to such obviously solid advice. What I do know is that if this is the best and the brightest our federal government can provide in an emergency, we're in bigger trouble than I thought.

FEMA to Katrina Survivors: About that Money We Sent You . . .
FEMA claims that it overpaid some Katrina survivors and began demanding survivors repay the money to the federal government. The checks ranged from $2,000 to $ 26,200. FEMA said that folks whose insurance companies eventually provided some daily expense money were ineligible for the federal money.

Ocean Springs resident Leslie Keller said she cannot afford to repay the $2,500 she was given for rental assistance. She said FEMA originally told her she didn't qualify for the money because she was living in a FEMA trailer. But because she was still paying a mortgage on her destroyed home, she said, FEMA relented.

"Then six months later, they said I had to give it back," said Keller, a 45-year-old mother of three who attends school during the day and works at night.

"I can understand going after the ones that fraudulently (received money)," she said. "But as far as the people who accepted aid and then FEMA says it's the wrong type of aid, it's not right."

Thankfully, a federal judge in New Orleans ordered Bush’s agency to stop.

Although FEMA gives aid recipients a chance to appeal, "the process, if it can be navigated at all, takes months," U.S. District Judge Helen Berrigan wrote in her order.

"In the meantime, the defendants appear to treat the plaintiffs' and their prospects of homelessness and despair and stress of such added worries as if it were gnats to be brushed away, while the defendants busy themselves with creating more bureaucratic regulations."

What a blatant example of Bush’s utter betrayal with all of his blubbering about compassionate government. Cruel and compassionless are more apt adjectives. The FEMA nightmares continue on Bush’s watch from the formaldehyde-filled FEMA trailers to an inept debris removal process that may be creating contaminated water. (See my pieces titled Coffee, Tea, Contaminated Water? and Formaldehyde-Filled FEMA trailers.)

Awakening our American Ingenuity to See the Bigger Picture
As Bush sleeps comfortably in a White House that I believe should be the residence of President Al Gore, families and businesses in and around New Orleans and all along the Mississippi Gulf Coast suffer needlessly.

In spite of the miserable state of affairs in this region, I see folks everywhere who are taking whatever emotional, mental, and physical resources they can muster up to carry on day-to-day in a set of circumstances that are unfathomable, yet Bush and Cheney have allowed to linger and expand in the most unconscionable of ways. It doesn’t have to be this way.

A little bit of compassion coupled with genuine American ingenuity and good old fashioned elbow grease and out of these worst of times can come a renewed commitment to work diligently and consistently to the America in our hearts and in our dreams both inside and outside of Katrina Land.

Through the lens of Katrina, we can see a much bigger picture, if we look for it.

Broadening Katrina’s Lens:
A five Part Series
Part 1: Broadening Katrina's Lens
Part 2: Recovery’s Two Major Impediments: $$$ and the “F” word
Part 3: The "F" Word: FEMA
Part 4: Katrina’s Bigger Picture
Part 5: Katrina’s Karmic Payback: Insurance Reform
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