Hurricane Preparedness also included knowing your homeowner insurance

Protecting Yourself With Good Home Owner's Insurance Is Great WayTO Work On Hurricane Preparedness!

This week a federal trial over the damages that a family in the New Orleans area came to a final settlement only after the insurance company was told by the jury that the damages to the home was due to hurricane winds not the storm surge and flooding issues that came later.

Insurance of all kinds is very difficult for most people to understand. It is important to have as much disaster preparedness information concerning what is beneficial for your very costly home owner insurance especially when you live anywhere near a hurricane possible area.

Many people that that if they have homeowners insurance then that should cover them no matter what happens. That is far from the truth. It is important to know exactly what is covered in your disaster component of your homeowner’s insurance. It may cost you some money but it is wise to have an INDEPENDENT PROFESSIONAL like a lawyer etc look over insurance policy being proposed.

You certainly don’t want to have a mortgage on that house and a destroyed home. Many in the Hurricane Katrina affected area though that they were covered by their homeowner insurance. They were not or they are like Kevin and Sherrye Webster who had to go to court to get their insurance company to pay what was owed.

Homeowner’s insurance is not enough to protect your home. Home owner insurance often if not always has statements that can disqualify the policy owner from getting money due to flood damage. True the damage might have been caused by the hurricane but you may have a hard time proving that to an insurance adjuster or court.

Make sure you have flood insurance as well as homeowner’s insurance. In hurricane areas it may cost you a good amount of money but it is well worth the additional expense.

If you are a renter you may also want to check into flood insurance to see if you could qualify for coverage of your possessions. Often renters think that the insurance that is on the house or apartment paid for by the landlord is coverage for you as well. Most instances it is not. Check to make sure.

Emergency preparedness includes having to make sure you have enough disaster related insurance to cover you in a major disaster. When you are completing or reviewing your emergency preparedness plans make sure you also include all possible information on your disaster insurance coverage. Keep a copy of your insurance information in your emergency preparedness kit along with all your other emergency preparedness necessities like food and water. Your insurance may have a provision that will help with costs for staying in a safe and comfortable location while the repair or rebuilding work is completed.

Always have the most up to date disaster preparedness information on all issues so you will be as ready for a hurricane or other disaster as possible.

When talking to an insurance agent and your lawyer afterwards, make sure you have an emergency preparedness checklist of all the areas you want and need covered in your disaster insurance. This will help to ensure that you have covered all the necessary topics they might affect your.

Before signing on the dotted line and handing over a check for the insurance, it is wise to have at least 3-5 different estimates from different companies. Each company will want to offer you their insurance plan. Make sure you are very clear with the selling agent that you want to have a breakdown of the cost per line item and that you insist that they address the issues and areas that you specify. That way you are comparing apples to apples and not apples to elephants!

Remember that the insurance agent makes their money by selling you the most insurance possible at the highest costs. They most often work on commissions. Make sure you get your money’s worth of insurance for the cost. Check around!!!

Remember in disaster preparedness if something sounds too good to be true ---IT IS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE! The cheapest policy may not be right for you and neither is the most expensive one either. Find a middle ground with all the issues you need to hurricane preparedness for you and your family.

Hurricane preparedness is not a luxury for a few, it is a MUST for all that may have to face down a hurricane and insurance companies!

COMMENTS WELCOMED!

Are you or have you been in a hurricane disaster? Do you know someone who is recovering or has been affected by a hurricane in the past? Please share your thoughts and stories here on this blog. All I ask is that everyone be respectful and sensitive of each other and that identifying information about a person who is not the author be limited to protect their privacy.

Be Safe!

Terrie

Dr. Terrie Modesto, Critical Incident Thanatologist

www.trainforahurricane.com

Texas-based insurer, couple settle in Katrina insurance trial

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5174950.html

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press Writer

© 2007 The Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS — A federal trial over Hurricane Katrina damage ended abruptly with a settlement between the insurance company and the Mississippi couple whose property damage, a jury decided, had been caused by the storm's wind and should have been covered by the couple's policy.

Terms of the settlement between USAA Casualty Insurance Co. and Kevin and Sherrye Webster were not disclosed. But an attorney for the couple, Charles Merkel, called the outcome "very satisfying to everybody."

USAA spokesman David Snowden confirmed the settlement but declined comment.

On Friday, the eight-member jury concluded that all of the damage to the couple's beachfront house in Bay St. Louis, Miss., was caused by Katrina's wind, wind-blown debris or wind-driven rain — perils that are covered by the San Antonio-based insurer's policies.

The jury wasn't asked to specify how much money USAA owes the Websters for the damage.

USAA had argued that nearly all of the damage to the two-story home was caused by Katrina's flood waters and wasn't covered by the Websters' policy, but the jury disagreed.

"I think it's a big victory for all the homeowners on the Gulf Coast," said attorney John Cocke, who also represents the Websters.

Friday's verdict capped the first phase of a trial that started last week in Gulfport, Miss. The next phase had been set to resume Tuesday, with the jurors hearing testimony about damage to the contents of the two-story house. Ultimately, the judge was to be responsible for calculating what USAA owes the Websters, based on the jury's verdicts.

But the settlement, reached Friday after the jury had been sent home, eliminates the need for that.

USAA and other insurers say their homeowner policies cover damage from a hurricane's wind but not its rising water, including surge. The Websters didn't have a separate flood insurance policy.

USAA blamed most of the damage to the couple's house on Katrina's storm surge, but the couple argues that wind caused the house to collapse before surge reached it.

The Websters' policy had limits of $811,000 for the house, $81,000 for a barn on their property, $162,200 for living expenses and $760,480 for the home's contents. USAA paid them $10,944 for wind damage to the house and $42,929 for the barn.

Cocke said Friday's verdict means USAA will owe the Websters at least $800,000.

The Websters also are seeking unspecified punitive damages for the company's alleged bad faith, plus attorney's fees and expenses. Jurors won't be asked to consider punitive damages until later in the trial.

The couple is among thousands of Mississippi and Louisiana property owners who have sued their insurers after Katrina wiped out large swaths of the Gulf Coast in August 2005.

Several federal trials for Katrina insurance cases already have been held in Gulfport, Miss., yielding mixed results for policyholders.

In August 2006, U.S. District Judge L.T. Senter sided with Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. and ruled that the company wasn't obligated to pay a Pascagoula couple for damage from Katrina's rising water. A federal appeals court in New Orleans later upheld that ruling.

In January, however, a jury awarded $2.5 million in punitive damages to a Biloxi couple who sued State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. for denying their claim. Senter later reduced the award to $1 million, though he said State Farm had acted in a "grossly negligent way."