State Farm Faces Katrina Trial in La.

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
© 2007 The Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS — A jury heard opening statements Monday for the first federal trial in Louisiana against State Farm Insurance Cos. for a policyholder's lawsuit over Hurricane Katrina damage.

The eight-member jury will be asked to decide whether Katrina's wind or floodwater was responsible for demolishing the Port Sulphur home of Michael and Judy Kodrin, who sued State Farm for denying their claim after the Aug. 29, 2005, storm.

"That's going to be the main issue in the case," U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier told a 30-member jury pool.


State Farm, which says its homeowner policies cover damage from wind but not rising water, concluded Katrina's storm surge destroyed the Kodrins' house and denied the couple's claim.

The Kodrins, however, argue that hurricane-force winds destroyed their wood-frame home hours before water overtopped a nearby river levee and flooded their Plaquemines Parish neighborhood.

"When the water filled up like that, the game was already over," John Redmann, an attorney for the Kodrins, said in his opening statement.

State Farm attorney Ryan Acomb said there's an "honest dispute" over the cause of damage to the property. He urged jurors to be guided by evidence and not let sympathy for the homeowners cloud their judgment.

"We don't know of any witnesses to what happened to the home during Hurricane Katrina," Acomb said. "All you can go by is the circumstantial evidence."

The wind-versus-water debate at the center of this case also was the central issue in several federal court cases State Farm already has faced in Mississippi.

In January, a federal jury in Gulfport, Miss., awarded $2.5 million in punitive damages to a couple who sued State Farm for refusing to cover Katrina's storm surge damage to their Biloxi home. A federal judge later reduced the award to $1 million but said State Farm acted in a "grossly negligent way" by denying the policyholder's claim.

This week's trial, which is expected to last several days, isn't the first Katrina insurance case heard in federal court in New Orleans. In April, a jury awarded more than $2.8 million in damages and penalties to a Louisiana man who sued Allstate Insurance Co. over storm damage.

Bloomington, Ill.-based State Farm, the nation's largest property insurer, also is Louisiana's largest residential property insurer, writing 32 percent of the policies in the state in 2006.

Louisiana policyholders filed several hundred lawsuits against State Farm after Katrina. Company spokesman Jeff McCollum said four of those cases have been tried in state courts and decided by judges, but the Kodrins' suit is the first to be tried in federal court.

Michael Kodrin, a marina manager before Katrina hit, was expected to testify Monday afternoon. He and his wife moved to Raceland after the storm.

Katrina reduced the Kodrins' home to rubble; only their mailbox and rear steps were left standing. These so-called "slab" cases are among the most contentious of Katrina claims, because experts are left with little physical evidence to help them determine if wind or water caused the damage.

The Kodrins say a State Farm adjuster initially told them that wind apparently caused most of the damage to their home. Later, however, an engineer who inspected the property for the insurer concluded that storm surge destroyed the house.

The Kodrins estimate that Katrina caused a total of $341,745 in damage to their property. State Farm says the market value of the property is only $110,000.

A separate flood insurance policy already has paid the couple $76,000, but they are seeking an additional $207,086 from State Farm for damage to their home, its contents and their living expenses.


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Bush vetoes $23-billion water bill

Congress is expected to override the president next week in a bipartisan vote.

By Richard Simon
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

November 3, 2007

WASHINGTON — President Bush delivered his threatened veto of a $23-billion water bill Friday, but Congress is virtually certain to reverse it in the first override of a Bush veto.

And Bush and the Democratic-controlled Congress are moving closer to a federal budget showdown that could result in more vetoes.

The House and Senate are expected to move swiftly next week to override Bush's veto of a bill loaded with water-related projects sought by members of both parties, from shoring up California's levees to protecting the Gulf Coast from hurricanes.



In a statement accompanying his veto, Bush said, "This bill lacks fiscal discipline."

On Capitol Hill, Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) said, "I am 100% confident that we can override this veto."

The defiant bipartisan response to the veto underscores the difficulty the president faces in his new zeal to hold down federal spending, especially when it affects highly visible construction projects cherished by lawmakers.

"This will be the first veto this Congress has overridden, and it was all about getting parochial water projects back to their home districts," said Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a watchdog group.

The bill would authorize more than 900 projects, such as restoration in the Florida Everglades and the replacement of seven Depression-era locks on the Upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers that farm groups say is crucial for shipping grain.

For California, the bill authorizes $1.3 billion for 54 projects, including $106 million to strengthen the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta levees, $25 million for revitalizing the concrete-bound Los Angeles River and $38 million for replenishing sand at Imperial Beach in San Diego County, a project that supporters say would protect coastal residents from storms.

It is the fifth bill that Bush has vetoed -- the fewest by any president since James A. Garfield, who was shot in 1881 after four months in office and died weeks later. Bush has vetoed two bills that would have expanded federal support for embryonic stem cell research, a bill to pay for the Iraq war that included a timeline for withdrawing troops, and a bill that would have expanded a children's health insurance program. The four vetoes were sustained.

The Water Resources Development Act passed the House 381-40 and the Senate 81-12, far more than the two-thirds needed to make the measure law over the president's objections. The override would be the first since 1998, when Congress reversed President Clinton's veto of $287 million worth of military construction projects from a spending bill.

"Nothing seems as dear to members of Congress as their water projects," said Robert L. Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a budget watchdog group.

Bixby expects that Bush, with support from congressional Republicans, will wield more influence over the appropriations bills. "Bush has a willing and sufficient minority with him to sustain his vetoes -- so long as it isn't a water project," he said.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), leader of a group of House conservatives, said he expected the water-bill veto to be overridden. "I plan to vote to sustain the veto, and I assume it will be a very small group of us," he said. "When the appropriations bills come . . . that's where the real fight on fiscal responsibility will be, and my guess is we'll have enough Republicans to sustain" a veto.

The water bill is supported by a number of Bush's usual allies, including business and farm groups. The measure even brought together Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Olka.), the panel's ranking member, who rarely agree. Inhofe had appealed to Vice President Dick Cheney and White House Budget Director Jim Nussle to urge the president not to veto the bill, and he vowed to lead the fight to override the veto.

"I share the president's concerns on excessive spending," said Republican bill supporter Sen. Mel Martinez. "There are some things in this bill that are not pretty in terms of government spending. But at the end of the day, as a Floridian, Everglades restoration is such an integral part of this WRDA bill we have to take the good with the bad."

Democrats pounced on the veto to portray Bush as out of touch with domestic priorities.

"When we override this irresponsible veto, perhaps the president will finally recognize that Congress is an equal branch of government and reconsider his many other reckless veto threats," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

Next week, the House is expected to take up the first of a string of spending bills that could face Bush vetoes: a $215-billion bill that combines Democratic-sought funding increases for health and education programs with spending for popular veterans programs.

Although the fiscal year began Oct. 1, Congress has yet to send Bush a spending bill.

Bush, signaling a new determination to erase the red ink in the budget, has complained that Congress added $22 billion to his budget and seemed addicted to earmarks. In the first six years of his administration, federal spending soared. Bush never vetoed a GOP-written spending bill. His administration inherited a budget surplus and has presided over six years of deficits, including a record $412.7 billion in fiscal 2004.

On Friday in his veto statement, Bush noted that the House originally approved a $15-billion water bill and the Senate approved a $14-billion measure, but instead of the customary splitting the difference during negotiations, they "emerged with a Washington compromise that costs over $23 billion."

"This is not fiscally responsible," he said.

The water bill authorizes projects, but the funds must be provided through the separate appropriations process.

Bush complained that some of the projects fall outside the main mission of the Army Corps of Engineers: "facilitating commercial navigation, reducing the risk of damage from floods and storms, and restoring aquatic ecosystems."

richard.simon@latimes.com


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Landmark Katrina Lawsuit Against State Farm Begins

Monday, 05 Nov 2007, 10:16 AM CST
Originally published here.

NEW ORLEANS (WHBQ FOX13 myfoxmemphis.com) – -- A federal jury will hear testimony today as a Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana couple argues that State Farm improperly denied their homeowners insurance claim on their house, which vanished in Hurricane Katrina.

Judy and Michael Kodrin say their Port Sulphur home was damaged by Katrina's winds long before the storm surge arrived. The Kodrins claim they are owed money under their homeowners policy as well as the money they received through their National Flood Insurance Program policy.

State Farm says the house was completely destroyed by storm surge, and no homeowners money is owed. Flooding is excluded on homeowners policies.

The case will be a test of State Farm's anti-concurrent causation clause, which the company has used to deny payment for wind damage on a home when it occurs in concert with flood damage.

These controversial clauses have been the focal point of litigation in Mississippi, but State Farm insurance contracts in Louisiana are worded slightly differently.

According to Judge Carl Barbier's pretrial order, the Kodrins' roof was found 1,000 yards away and all that remained of their 177 Holiday Drive home was the rear steps and the mailbox.

Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Katrina's Election Day Revenge: Anderson, Hood, Sumrall

by Ana Maria

Just over two years ago, the lives of millions of people living inside the Katrina-ravaged region changed overnight. Homes, places of worship, schools, communities destroyed. Lives devastated as never before. Within weeks, Big Insurance came around delivering its disgusting decision not to pay for the wind related damage on the property. Not on U.S. Senator Lott’s home in Pascagoula located on the eastern end of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Not on the U.S. Congressman Gene Taylor’s home located on the western end of the same Gulf Coast. Big Insurance dolled out the same irresponsible treatment to a federal judge living somewhere along the Gulf Coast as well as to anyone who was not an eyewitness to the storm, which entailed nearly everyone.

Deeply inside of Big Insurance’s pocket, Mississippi’s Insurance Commissioner George Dale sided with the industry voters here had thought he was to regulate on behalf of home and business owners. Dale shrugged off the criticism shaking his proverbial finger with warnings that Big Insurance would leave the state were it not for his wise decisions allowing them to have their way with us. Of course, Big Insurance has had its way with American families and businesses all over this nation of ours.

A few months ago, Bloomberg News published Home Insurers' Secret Tactics Cheat Fire Victims, Hike Profits, a riveting and insightful article that disclosed the industry’s dirty, unknown secrets.

''Fighting an insurance company is like staring down the wrong end of a cannon,'' Dr. Bennett said after fighting his insurance company. The New Hampshire physician lost his five-bedroom home in a 1993 fire filled with antiques and fine art. Replacement costs? $20 million. The insurance company offered $1.7 million. Not quite 20% of the policy’s worth.

Here in the Katrina-ravaged region, the insurance industry again used and continues to use its low ball, starve-the-policyholder tactic.

Thankfully, Katrina’s revenge began at the election box two months ago. Voters in Mississippi’s Democratic primary election booted out ol’ George because of his cozy relationship with Big Insurance. Voters replaced him with Gary Anderson, a man a great integrity. Anderson’s independence from Big Insurance has been a major foundation of his campaign. He went so far as to publicly declare that he would not take a dime from Big Insurance, and Anderson has kept his word.

The Republican candidate, Mike Chaney, also made that pledge, but has repeated betrayed his word. The latest figure has been more than $70,000 worth of betrayal. Rather than emulating Gary Anderson, who is a man of great integrity, Chaney has emulated George Dale, a man who did Big Insurance’s dirty work and betrayed the tens of thousands of South Mississippi families and businesses—voters who remembered in the Democratic primary. Mike “Mini Me” Chaney is the bait and switch candidate in this race for an insurance commissioner who will be true and faithful to all of Mississippi’s families and businesses.

Here on the Gulf Coast, we are all still suffering greatly from the housing shortage and the lack of basic necessities like grocery stores, bakeries, jails, and other things that are par for the course in communities all over Mississippi and the rest of the nation. Why? Insurance companies didn’t pay on the wind-related damages of the policies be it for a home or a business. Without the money to rebuild, folks are hard pressed to find the money to self-finance. Even if there is money to rebuild based on savings or other assets, affording the astronomical increase in insurance premiums is more than most of us can swallow. The same goes for developers, as well.

At his Town Hall Meeting on Insurance Reform that Congressman Gene Taylor held last August, Taylor told us that developers are telling him that to build an apartment complex requires $300 per unit for insurance alone. Let me give you an example of what that means. A childhood friend told me that before Katrina, her mother lived in an apartment and paid $500 a month. Her rent went up to $900 a month after Katrina. Who in their right mind has in their budget an 80% increase in housing? Imagine a similar percentage increase for a mortgage. Everyone’s insurance costs have increased and those costs are ultimately born by us, the consumers of housing, etc.

The difference between the two candidates in tomorrow’s election here in Mississippi is the difference as voters had in the primary. Gary Anderson is independent and deliberately siding with home and business owners. Mike “Mini Me” Chaney is in the pocket of Big Insurance so much so that when asked if he intended to live up to his pledge not to take money from Big Insurance, Mini Me snidely retorted “When pigs fly.”

No state in the nation deserves such an arrogant man in the office of insurance commissioner, a man who demonstrates such contempt for keeping his word, such disrespect for the very people to whom he had made his pledge not to take Big Insurance money, such contempt for those of us who must live under the rules and regulations—or lack thereof—that the Mississippi Insurance Commissioner promulgates.

Personally, I’m voting the Democratic ticket straight down the line. It’s easy, particularly with Gary Anderson as one of the statewide candidates. Anderson has stated he intends to open an office here on the Gulf Coast to help us resolve our many outstanding issues with Big Insurance. Throughout the campaign, Anderson has kept his word. He has proposed transforming the insurance commissioner office into one that is truly the public servant of the people of Mississippi, one that looks out for our interest from an industry that has demonstrated over and over again that its greedy-gutted CEOs can be trusted as far as we can throw them. Anderson is the man for the job. He has my vote and I hope he has yours as well.

Additionally, I’ll be voting for Jim Hood to remain as our Attorney General. He has done a wonderful job of looking out for us in many arenas, most especially against Big Insurance. I’ll also be voting for Mike Sumrall for State Auditor. He is the only candidate that has ever conducted a government audit, complete with full knowledge of GAGAS, Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards, also known as the Yellow Book in trade lingo. Sumrall has 23 years auditing experience with the office of state auditor. You see, as a former legislative auditor for the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury, I know the difference between a cross foot and a foot, a performance audit from a performing monkey, what looks like the potential for fraud and abuse, what constitutes an audit trail. So does Mike Sumrall. He is the only one in the race that has real, honest-to-GAWD auditing experience. Given the potential for fraud and abuse in the billions of federal dollars for Katrina recovery, I want someone looking at those expenditures who knows what they are doing. Mike does.

Same for the other offices. I want an Attorney General who knows the law and how to protect us from those like Big Insurance who may, just may engage in criminal behavior or break a contract just to pad its profits and to do so while costing us, the taxpayers, or us the policyholders, or both.

I want an insurance commissioner who knows that there is an inherent risk in the insurance business. Those of us who pay insurance risk our money in anticipation that we may need to cash in our policy should disaster strike. Our risk is that we’re handing over our money, and we never have reason to file a claim. That is our risk. Big Insurance has a risk that it collects premiums and one day will have to make good on a claim. That is its risk.

After Katrina, Big Insurance decided to engage in the big rip off and ran a scam to deprive policyholders of the ability to collect on the wind damages that wind policies covered. In Mississippi, George Dale enabled Big Insurance’s Big Rip Off. We threw Dale out of office for this behavior. Mike “Mini Me” Chaney is the George Dale candidate in tomorrow’s race for insurance commissioner. Like Dale, Mini Me has tried to scare voters with talk that the big rip off insurance companies will leave the state unless he is elected. Let ‘em leave, Mini Me. We can’t afford lying, cheating, conniving, betraying insurance companies. That goes double for any one who would be their willing enabler.

Voting for Gary Anderson is the prudent vote to cast in tomorrow’s election. I believe Gary Anderson is genuine. I know that he is qualified. I’m convinced that a beautiful new day will dawn in Mississippi with Gary Anderson as our Insurance Commissioner. Let’s get out and vote in droves for that beautiful day!


© 2007 Ana Maria Rosato. All rights reserved.
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Oxford lawyer Scruggs funds ad against GOP insurance commissioner hopeful

GOP candidate for insurance post claims he's avoiding fight

Scruggs
File Photo/The Clarion-Ledger
By LEAH RUPP
Originally published November 4, 2007

Oxford lawyer Dickie Scruggs is funding a new attack ad on Republican insurance commissioner hopeful Mike Chaney.

Chaney has been accused by Democratic opponent Gary Anderson of cozying up to insurance companies, and the new ad reiterates that.

But Chaney said he's independent and is steering clear of a fight with Scruggs.

Anderson, a former state chief fiscal officer, said he's not involved with the ad.

It's unclear how Scruggs' involvement could affect the outcome of the race between Chaney and Anderson on Tuesday, but some attribute the attorney with helping bring down George Dale, the longest- serving insurance commissioner in the nation.

"I am concerned that we are going from bad to worse with Mike Chaney," Scruggs said. "He's going to be insurance-friendly, at least to the extent George Dale was."

At the end of July, Scruggs announced he was contributing $250,000 to Mississippians for Fair Elections, a PAC "created to raise awareness about the role the insurance commissioner plays."

One reason he and Dale were at odds was because Scruggs' law firm represented hundreds of property owners who sued insurers over unpaid claims after Hurricane Katrina while Dale sponsored a program to allow victims to resolve claims without seeking litigation.

Dale lost to Anderson in the August primary.

"After that, I would have just let this thing run its course," Scruggs said last week. "But then (Chaney) attacked me personally."

In a letter sent by Chaney's campaign, the state senator calls Scruggs a "greedy" personal injury lawyer who has "made millions and millions of dollars by suing Mississippi businesses."

In an interview with The Clarion-Ledger, Chaney said the letter was a "wrong draft" and that he talked to Scruggs about the mistake after it was sent out.

"He wants to make this personal; I don't," Chaney said. "He told me he was staying out of this race and that's obviously not the case."

Scruggs said the new ad was being funded through the PAC.

But Chaney and others have charged Scruggs may be contributing to Anderson's campaign more directly as well.

"A man that worked for the state of Mississippi doesn't have that type of money," said Chaney, referring to a $200,000 loan Anderson reported giving himself in the Oct. 30 campaign finance reports.

"Do I think Dickie Scruggs is financing his campaign? Sure, I do."

But Anderson, asked repeatedly whether the loan came from Scruggs or the PAC, said the money was from his "personal assets."

"I don't have anything to do (with the ad)," he said. "This is their issue, not my issue."

Anderson said his career in the public and private sectors has enabled him to make good investments and that "those investments have paid off for me."

Still, Anderson said Chaney should be criticized for taking money from those associated with insurance industry.

"I believe the voters will say the insurance commissioner is not for sale," he said. "I have had to fund my campaign myself because I'm not taking money from insurance companies."

Chaney has acknowledged he was taking donations from insurance agents but not from large companies.

"(Agents) are my neighbors, my friends," he said. "They're the first people I call when I have a claim, and I'm not going to shut them out in an election that is this important."

It's unclear whether negative advertising can affect the way someone votes, said Allan McBride, professor of political science at the University of Southern Mississippi.

"One is that they provide information," he said. "They lay out what the person may have done wrong. There is a sense that a lot of voters might appreciate that."

On the other hand, some research shows tarring the other candidate doesn't matter at all, McBride said.<>

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Insurance commissioner: Anderson is best

November 1, 2007

Had Hurricane Katrina not struck the Gulf Coast Aug. 29, 2005, there likely would be little opposition in this post that voters must decide Nov. 6.

It's likely that Democrat George Dale would be cruising toward a ninth term, merely awaiting the voters' routine OK to continue after 32 years in office as the nation's longest serving insurance commissioner.

But Katrina did strike, Dale lost the Democratic nomination Aug. 7 to Gary Anderson and, for the first time since 1975, Dale won't be on the ballot. Anderson faces Republican state Sen. Mike Chaney.

The post of insurance commissioner is virtually invisible most years. But Katrina changed the face of insurance in Mississippi and has put focus on this race.

Mississippians have long tended to want to elect their officials with the belief that an elected official is more responsive.

But Katrina revealed that state law renders the insurance commissioner less powerful than consumers seem to want.

No commissioner can force private insurance companies to do business in Mississippi or craft cheap insurance policies for those who wish to live in a hurricane zone.

There are no quick or easy solutions to the housing-insurance crises on the Gulf Coast. What a commissioner can do is enforce state insurance regulations and hold the companies accountable.

Anderson pledged early in the campaign to not take any funds from the insurance industry, as a promise to voters as to whom he represents.

At this critical juncture of rebuilding Mississippi, the state needs expertise in dealing with the complex issues regarding insurance. While Chaney, 63, has served in both the state House and Senate, Anderson, 51, has the better experience for the job, as the state's former chief financial officer.

Anderson is committed to making the office more user-friendly and consumer oriented. He knows government and understands the complexity of insurance issues. He also has the personal integrity and fortitude to independently serve consumers while ensuring insurance companies have a fair competitive market in which to compete.

Anderson is the best choice Nov. 6.


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Rep. Lofgren Introduces Gulf Coast Civic Works Act

Bill Would Create Federal Authority to Coordinate Multiple Recovery Projects

With great personal pride am I posting this press release from the office of Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA). She had been my congressional representative when I lived in San Jose. Congresswoman Lofgren is an amazing legislator, and I'm elated that she has sponsored such a critically important piece of legislation that will greatly assist in the vibrant and resilient recovery of this region. Thank you, Congresswoman Lofgren . . . and to her two co-sponsors: Congressmen Gene Taylor (D-MS) and Charles Melacon (D-LA)!!!

- A.M. in the Morning!

Washington, D.C. – Today, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) introduced the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act of 2007, which will help ensure that real progress is made toward rebuilding and sustaining the Gulf Coast region. As part of a package of concurrent legislation, this bill establishes the Gulf Coast Recovery Authority to coordinate multiple recovery projects, rebuild key infrastructure, and revitalize the region’s workforce through the Gulf Coast Civic Works Project.



The legislation, which is co-sponsored by Gulf Coast Representatives Charlie Melancon (D-LA) and Gene Taylor (D-MS), ensures that local community input is integrated into the decision making process and that local companies are given access to contracts.

“I introduced this legislation to help ensure that the critical infrastructure along the gulf coast will be rebuilt in an efficient and responsible manner,” noted Rep. Zoe Lofgren. “It also establishes a framework to protect the interests of local workers, businesses, and communities while moving the rebuilding efforts forward. This bill will help fast-track the process of establishing sustainable industrial and commercial development along Gulf Coast . While Silicon Valley is a long way from the Gulf Coast , I believe that it is the responsibility of every Member of Congress to ensure that the federal government responds to the need of all Americans.”

=========================================


Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren is serving her seventh term in Congress representing most of the City of San Jose and Santa Clara County . She serves as Chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law. She also Chairs the House Administration Subcommittee on Elections and serves on the House Homeland Security Committee. Congresswoman Lofgren is Chair of the California Democratic Congressional Delegation consisting of 34 Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives from California.

© 2007 Ana Maria Rosato. All rights reserved.
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Going Crazy: The Link Between Insurance, Housing, and Depression

A study on post-Katrina mental health that focused on families in FEMA trailers said that suicide attempts in FEMA trailer parks were 79 times the national average.

by Ana Maria

If I were asked to name the chief benefit of the house, I should say: The house shelters day-dreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace.”

— Gaston Bachelard, French philosopher, 1884-1962

Apparently here along the Missisisppi Gulf Coast we're experiencing 40% increase in mental problems than we were six months after Katrina. In plain language, we're more crazy than our relatives and friends in the Big Easy. That's what a Harvard professor stated in his testimony before the Senate committee that U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) chaired.

While I can't provide any psychological insights into the differentiation between here and there, I do wonder if the political perspectives between the two areas may be playing a factor.

New Orleans itself is a hard-core Democratic haven. Those of us with family roots in New Orleans--such as yours truly--are also die hard Democrats. Plenty of us here on the western part of the Gulf Coast replicate the political leanings of our New Orleans counterparts. However, the rest of the Mississippi Gulf Coast is definitely in the Republican camp. So let's try this on for size.

I remember listening to a woman not too long ago talking with pride of the fact that George Bush had actually come to the Mississippi Gulf Coast on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. "We're his peeps," she beamed. "Of course, he wants to help us."

I didn't have it in me to attempt to persuade her to look at his actions with regard to his "help" rather than to merely listen to his rhetoric. Sooner or later, she and others will figure it out and, perhaps, with a devastating blow.

Indeed, the month after Bush's annual photo op and empty words about helping us to recover, his intentions made headlines in the region.

White House threatens to veto national wind insurance plan

The Sun Herald, the daily newspaper that covers the state's coastal counties, ran an editorial with this headline.

Presidential Veto Would Break Faith with South Mississippi

The headline speaks volumes about the emotional connection that people here feel toward this White House.

Reality, however, sometimes sinks in slowly. I have listened to local residents who are Republicans berate FEMA while praising Bush. I have heard other local Republicans go on at length about the Democrats in Congress while proudly proclaiming the virtues of the Republican leadership. Many a time these were folks talking while living in FEMA trailers.

I wonder the extent to which the 40% increase in depression, desperation, and other mental health issues is related not just to someone's party affiliation, but also to the amount of betrayal that they just cannot come to grips with regarding the stark difference between rhetoric and reality.

The White House has not used the resources at hand to demand the insurance companies pay up on the home owner's wind insurance claims. Rather, the White House greeted the multiple peril legislation that Congressman Gene Taylor sponsored and passed overwhelmingly in the U.S. House of Representatives with a veto threat. We can expect the same when the U.S. Senate passes it. Ditto for when both chambers pass the anti-trust legislation, which will bring the insurance industry under the same federal regulations as its everyone else in the financial services industry.

The insurance commissioner here in Mississippi followed the White House lead. George Dale's actions got him ousted in the Democratic primary. Gary Anderson is now the Democratic nominee and he is running on a platform that includes protecting the policy holder, creating real competition, and, of course, he supports Taylor's multiple peril legislation.

The insurance industry has its lap dog in Republican nominee Mike Chaney. [See Anderson's lap dog ad here. It's great!]

I've dubbed Chaney "Mini Me" because his views replicate those of George Dale. Hopefully, five days from today, it will be a new day here in Mississippi with the election of Gary Anderson as our insurance commissioner.

One of Anderson's promises is to put an office here on the Gulf Coast to help solve the remaining insurance claims. Anderson knows that the insurance industry's deliberate failure to live up to their financial obligations has kept people from rebuilding their homes. Solving the insurance crisis will help solve the housing crisis. And solving the housing crisis should dramatically decrease the depression, desperation, and isolation that many feel. Reducing the causes of the mental health issues will make for a happier, healthier community.

So, voting for Anderson is a sign of hope, of mental health, of promise for coming home.

When all this begins to come to fruition, my hope is that we'll experience the joy of going crazy because things are finally moving dramatically in the direction of our dreams. That's a crazy we're all looking forward to experience. That day can begin this Tuesday when we cast our ballots for Gary Anderson for Mississippi Insurance Commissioner.


© 2007 Ana Maria Rosato. All rights reserved.
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Mental-health and housing issues inextricably linked since Katrina.

By JOSHUA NORMAN
McClatchy Newspaper
A study on post-Katrina mental health that focused on families in FEMA trailers said that suicide attempts in FEMA trailer parks were 79 times the national average.

“If I were asked to name the chief benefit of the house, I should say: The house shelters day-dreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace.” — Gaston Bachelard, French philosopher, 1884-1962

BILOXI, Miss. | For thousands of families still living in FEMA trailers, their place to dream in peace was washed away more than two years ago and has yet to return.

The mental toll of a lack of permanent housing is indescribably great. FEMA trailer parks are therefore the epicenter of any post-Katrina mental-health crisis.

“It feels like my insides are coming out,” said Mattie Martin, a resident of a FEMA trailer park near the beach in Gulfport, Miss.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency had sent letters to residents of that park in the second week of October saying that they would have to be moved by the end of the month, and that FEMA workers could be coming any day to move them. The letter was vague on when and where they would be moved.

The stress of moving again, of not knowing when or how they would get permanent housing, was taking its toll on nearly everyone. That is saying nothing of the fact that they were storm survivors living in flimsy trailers that rocked in thunderstorms and high winds.

“I’m 60 years old. I don’t need to be going through this,” Martin said. “I don’t relax. It does make me forget sometimes. I know I’d just be glad to be settled.”

There have been a few studies on post-Katrina mental health that focused on families in FEMA trailers, and all of their findings were devastatingly bad.

Among the most shocking, from International Medical Corps, was published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine in the spring. It stated that suicide attempts in FEMA trailer parks were 79 times the national average.

Michael Hall, outreach coordinator for Memorial Hospital Behavioral Health in Gulfport, said mental-health and housing issues were inextricably linked since Katrina.

“They kind of feed on one another,” Hall said: A lack of good mental health makes it harder to maintain a house and a job, and a lack of a job and a house makes it harder to maintain good mental health.

Most of the people who Hall sees who were adversely affected mentally by the storm are of a lower socioeconomic status. The wealthier coast population was able to move somewhere permanently or fix damaged homes relatively quickly. Most, if not all, of the wealthier population’s normal mental-health buffers, the checks on normalcy, are already back in place.

Hall and other mental-health professionals on the coast repeatedly stress that it is impossible to gauge the exact degree of any post-Katrina mental-health crisis, and add that most people possess a profound natural ability to endure through all kinds of stress.

However, no Gulf Coast mental-health professional has said the affordable-housing crisis is making any mental-health crisis better.

| The Associated Press | McClatchy Newspapers © 2007 Kansas City Star and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.kansascity.com


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Trailer needed, clinic closes abruptly

By MEGHA SATYANARAYANA
megha@sunherald.com

LONG BEACH -- Last week's abrupt closure of Coastal Family Health Center has left some patients angry, confused and in some cases despondent.

"Some of our patients, the older ones, said they just want to cry," said medical assistant Terri Scully, who transferred from Long Beach to the Bay St. Louis office after the closure. The call came last Monday, she said, and they were closed by Thursday night. Patients were directed to Bay St. Louis or Gulfport for services.

Patients have been calling her all week, she said. Many lack transportation, and tell her they don't know how they'll get to Coastal Family Health's other clinics. Theirs was a small clinic, and patients feel like they've been abandoned, she said.

One of those patients is Charles Tuttle, who lived a short distance from the clinic. He showed up Wednesday to find the clinic closed. Tuttle, who is uninsured, battles a head injury that requires continuous care, which he gets from Coastal Family Health. Sometimes he can drive and sometimes he can't, and both Gulfport and Bay St. Louis are too far.

The Long Beach clinic opened after Katrina, in a borrowed trailer off Espy Road. It was meant to be temporary, said Coastal Family Health Director Joe Dawsey. They were supposed to return it in July, but he requested an extension until December.

Then the owners of the trailer, Family Health Care Clinic in Pearl, asked for it back last week. Dr. Margaret Gray, FHCC's executive director, said it was needed for a new clinic opening Dec. 1. Given the amount of time he had to move equipment, clean and transport the module, Dawsey said he felt he had to return it right away.

Gray said she was unaware her request would disrupt services in the area, and said she has moved a clinic before without issues. She said she did not kick the clinic out of its home. Dawsey said there will always be gaffes in any move.

"My main concern with the short notice - it was impossible to contact all the patients," said Dr. Sam McCreedy, staff doctor for the clinic. He worries patients will think it was his decision.

Dawsey said they are looking for another permanent location in the Long Beach-Pass Christian area.

For Lisa Thompson the Long Beach closure is a disappointment. She called Friday for a follow-up to some tests and was shocked the phone was disconnected. She called the Gulfport clinic, which couldn't tell her anything. The diabetic cares for five children, and can't afford to get to Bay St. Louis as often as her family needs care. But she'll go, she said, because of Dr. McCreedy.

The thing she'll miss most will be the homey atmosphere of the Long Beach clinic and the friendly staff.

"It made you feel like less of the demographic you were in," she said.


© 2007 Sun Herald. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.sunherald.com


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