What Flood Insurance?
In Sunday’s Times Picayune we learn that most people in the New Orleans area did have flood insurance after all. Somebody actually took the time to look at the data and, low and behold, about 67 percent of the homes in New Orleans were covered by flood insurance.
The data also show that LA residents have received more than $12 billion in flood insurance payouts as of February 22nd. This amount is only for flood claims – many people also have received homeowner insurance payouts, but those figures are not in the article.
The politics of all this is what I find so intriguing. As the article points out, just after the storm:
Members of Congress rose up in righteous indignation to scold residents of New Orleans, one of the most vulnerable cities in America, for failing to buy federal flood insurance and then coming hat in hand and asking to be bailed out with federal money.
Well, who was asking for the money?
In those early stages, much of the righteous indignation was in regard to a bill by Louisiana’s own Richard Baker. This was the now famous “Baker Bill,†the one that would provide a home bailout to residents and mortgage companies.
In our February 9th post, Baker’s Moral Hazard, I noted that Baker’s bill had passed the House Financial Services Committee 50-9. I then asked (sort of rhetorically):
Could this be a sign of rent seeking?
So, I’ll put my question differently: Is it more likely that “the residents of LA†were “coming hat in hand and asking to be bailed out with federal money,†or that mortgage company representatives were asking to be bailed out?
March 20th, 2006 at 5:56 pm
I think that the morgage compaines are trying to bail out. The worst part is that they are blaming it on the residents of New Orleans, when they did not plan the storm. I believe that the insurance companies were not prepared for something so big to happen like this. So they are trying to get the easy way out by blaming it on someone else.
March 21st, 2006 at 10:51 am
Victoria has a very good point. Isn’t it easiest just to push the blame off somewhere else? Also, perhaps it is more fruitful to recieve federal emergency aid than to make a claim to your individual insurance company.
March 22nd, 2006 at 10:25 am
I agree with Victoria. But I would like to put it in a different perspective. Instead of keep blaming each other about who was wrong, they should just get it done. They are human beings and should not suffer as they are doing. Yes many did not have insurance but that could come with a lot of other reasons why the households did not have insurance. Say for instance, unemployment could have been an issue or poverty. Everyone needs to stop blaming and start reacting. This is why we live the way we do today with so much turmoil.
March 22nd, 2006 at 4:17 pm
Shame on the members of Congress who accused New Orleans residents of trying to bail out of flood disasters with federal money. The numbers speak for themselves. “Jefferson Parish has the highest insurance market penetration in the top 100 flood insurance markets in the nation. St. Bernard, Orleans, and six other LA parishes also rank in the nation’s top 25.†It is also not an insured citizen’s fault if his residence is only insurable under federal law up to $250,000, along with the businessman who can only secure $500,000 on his business. What happens to the upper class elite? Certainly there are those Louisiana citizens who probably could have purchased flood insurance and did not; others could not. However, the ultimate responsibility lies with the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) in failing to pass legislation making ample flood insurance coverage mandatory in every community in every state. Although this insurance crisis could not have been avoided entirely, mortgage company reps should be scrutinized for their efforts to be bailed out of their predicaments which, with the planning and foresight of the NFIP, most certainly could have been more salvageable through a collaborative nationwide program.
March 23rd, 2006 at 8:26 am
Lets face it, the storm was an act of nature and for those that chose not to have flood insurance made the choice for the most part on their own. It was only a matter of time before a significant storm hit the greater New Orleans area again. The bottom line is that you are either prepared or not.
You make a choice to stay for a hurricane or go. You make a choice to buy flood insurance to protect your investment(s), or you don’t and spend that money on something else.
There was plenty of heads-up to the general public for the impending storm. People made choices and that’s the way it is. You must realize how fortunate we are as a nation to have a government that can and will pump billions of dollars into a disaster area to rebuild the local economy (or entire gulf south).
I do feel for the folks that lost loved ones, property, etc., as family can’t be replaced. But having witnessed the aftermath of Katrina first hand by spending the first sixteen days down in the city (CBD of New Orleans), sleeping on the loading docks behind the Riverwalk, flying in and out of St. Bernard Parish on Blackhawk helicopters, patrolling downtown New Orleans on foot and being shot at, riding point (armed) on search and rescue boats going up and down the streets in mid-city pulling people off of roof tops, and finally hand searching the 20 plus thousand people that were gathered at the Convention Center so that they could be boarded on Federal helicopters at the tax payers expense so that they could be flown to safety. Oh and don’t let me forget the time I spent at the superdome flying in and out of there to get more food, water, and ammunition for patrols in the city.
There comes a time when people must take responsibility for their actions. In Econ class we take about rational and predictable behavior. With the padding of our welfare system which encourages federal handouts, and the fact that Americans have mastered the ‘blame game’ could the whole aftermath of another severe storm be avoided with people taking individual responsibility?
December 4th, 2006 at 2:17 pm
I agree with Victoria’s comment. Insurance companies are trying to put the attention on other people. They do not want to look bad, so blame “poor old New Orleans people.†This storm was an act of nature, not the people of New Orleans. Everybody is acting like New Orleans deserves whatever negative reaction they get. No! I believe Insurance Companies just do not have enough money to repay people of New Orleans.