Insurance Jackassery.

I could have predicted this one. Victims of Hurricane Katrina (hereby refered to as "the bitch who blows") are being told by insurance companies "too bad, so sad - no claim for you!".

Why? Simple. They are calling the damage "flood damage". Standard insurance does not cover floods by tide, tidal waves, overflowing lakes, spray, or anything else related to water. It ONLY covers wind damage. That is it. Nothing more.

People who were told they did NOT live in a flood zone figured they did not need flood insurance - so many did not carry it. I can understand this logic - there are no volcanos in Floirda so I do not have volcano insurance.

But anyway, back to those who are going to get screwed.

Say you have windstorm insurance (remember, you were told you did NOT live in a flood zone). A windstorm comes. The wind blows. Hard. For a long time. The WIND then rips the roof off your house, and everything you own is soaked.

Your insurance agant comes over and says "we will cover part of your roof, but the rest of your stuff was flood damaged. Claim rejected!"

In the cases where the WIND caused levees to break, or the WIND pushed water far inland, all the damage was considered to be "flood damage" and people are being told they will get nothing. The damage was caused not be wind, but by water.

As if the levees just broke for no reason. Or as if the tide suddenly rose up for no reason. There was no wind! That hurricane? The wind was harmless! It was the non-wind related flood that was the bitch.

But all those premium checks written were accepted by the insurance companies with no questions asked.

The same shit happened in Florida. Nobody wanted to pay claim checks after Andrew. Floirda's insurance commissioner did not allow them to get away with it. Smaller companies declared bankruptcy, larger companies were forced to pay.

So the industry learned. They re-worded policies nationwide. In this case they will likely get away with not paying. And they will also raise premiums.

READ YOUR INSURANCE POLICY! If you have questions about some of the wording, do not just ask the insurance agent. He is a lying sack of shit. The best thing to do is to hire a lawyer for an hour or two and go over your policy with them.

If your policy explicitly leaves out any form of water damage, your policy is not worth crap. You might as well not even carry it. No matter what happens, they will find a way to blame the damage on a flood. Even if there is a fire, they will claim that the damage was caused by a flood caused by firefighter's hoses. Nevermind that the firefighters only hosed down everything because it was burning. It was a flood! No claim for you!

In some places that were put underwater, only 5% of the people had flood insurance. Experts estimate that only 30% of all the property damaged had enough insurance coverage. And that 30% is on the high end of the estimates.

The crisis is far from over. Recovery can not begin until this matter is resolved. If people can not rebuild homes, there will be nobody to work. Without workers, there is no business. With no business there is no money or jobs. And with no jobs, there is no reason for people to move back.

So all this talk about "we will rebuild" is just happy horse shit. It is just some crap that can be put on the evening news to make people feel better, or maybe boost Bush's approval rating. But the reality is far from this world viewed through rose tinted glasses.

Good people ARE going to be screwed. People who were told they did not live in a flood zone could not get emergency federal flood insurance, and their private insurance company would either not provide it OR wanted to charge premiums that were not affordable.

This will result in a land grab for devlopers. They will offer people a handful of magical beans for the plot of land their pile of toothpicks sits on, then they will build nice new homes. Of course the nice new homes will get sold, for a profit. The original owners? Who cares where they go! All the devlopers will care about is the income.

And what can we the little people do about it? Not a whole lot. If you do not carry insurance, nobody will finance your home. But if you DO carry insurance, it might be nothing more than money pissed away when your claim is not approved because your agent says the damage was caused by something not covered in your policy.

I only hope that someone stuffs piles of cash up the asshole of insurance company executives. That is what they want - piles of cash. And if it were up to me, they would get it. Far, far up their ass. So far it would come out their mouth.