Insurance Companies Screw Hurricane Homeowners

We all know that floods aren't covered by regular homeowner insurance, right?

Well, apparently insurance companies are trying to avoid paying Hurricane homeowners claiming:
A. Water damage isn't covered.
B. The Hurricane didn't cause the storm surge.
C. You have to prove that winds did damage, not water - for houses that are completely obliterated -- essentially impossible since people who were there to get proof would be dead.

So they avoid doing what seems to be the logical thing - start processing claims and then use their high-priced legal teams to sue the gamut of beaurocrats responsible for this mess - people who repeatedly ignored warning signs over decades - I'm talking hosts of politicians, lawyers, and lobbyists with deep pockets.

Insurance companies are mafia-like rackets, plain and simple. They should be (by legislation) gutted, forced to be non-profits, and maybe when disasters hit, they'd have money saved to pay for them.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/15/news.update/index.html

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Mississippi attorney general files lawsuit against insurance companies

BILOXI, Miss. (CNN) -- Amid reports that insurance companies may be taking advantage of Hurricane Katrina victims, Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood filed a lawsuit Thursday against five insurers in his state, his press office said.

Mississippi Farm Bureau Insurance, State Farm Fire and Casualty Co., Allstate Property and Casualty Co., United Services Automobile Association and Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. were listed as defendants in the suit.

The suit asks that certain provisions in policies offered by these companies be declared "void and unenforceable." Those provisions exclude from coverage much of the property loss and damage caused by Hurricane Katrina.

The suit also seeks to prohibit the insurers from using these provisions when adjusting property claims. "The companies will try to work with the policyholders to resolve this issue," Bill Davis of the Insurance Information Institute, a trade group, told CNN. "There may have to be engineering studies done to determine what caused the damage." (Posted 2:11 p.m.)


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