Day: August 31, 2008

Rebecca Mowbray – "Insurance may not cover as much under Gustav"

Sop passed this on as he headed back outside – and 100 or so miles north of him, I’ve got a little more time and insurance on my mind. Actually, I’ve had reinsurance on my mind – wondering just what risk there was to transfer. According to Mowbray’s story, a lot of risk has transferred to homeowners since Katrina.

If Hurricane Gustav hits Louisiana, homeowners will discover that they have less insurance coverage than they did during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and they’ll be reaching into their own pockets to cover damage.

In the past three years, the use of hurricane, windstorm or named-storm deductibles, which means that insurance doesn’t kick in until homeowners have paid a percentage of the insured value of the home as a deductible when a storm hits, have become commonplace, and can easily add up to the cost of a new roof.

At the same time, some 20,000 homeowners and 6,500 businesses find themselves with insurance policies that don’t cover wind damage at all, forcing them to buy “wind-only” policies from Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state-sponsored insurer of last resort. Continue reading “Rebecca Mowbray – "Insurance may not cover as much under Gustav"”

Gustav: If you are evacuating to the east (Updated)

I-10 is girdlock from exit 16 in Hancock County to the Mobile tunnel. Traffic was also reportedly very heavy on US 90 eastbound.

MDOT could do a better job updating their website:

MDOT has not entered any traffic alerts related to this event at this time.

They do have this press releases:

Traffic Update on Mississippi Interstate Highway Systems Due to Evacuations and Contraflow Operations

Due to evacuations that are in place due to Hurricane Gustav and contraflow operations that have been activated, below is a status update on the following interstate highway systems in Mississippi.

  • Interstates 59 & 55 are being contraflowed at this time and traffic is posing some delays.
  • There is a major traffic delay at Interstate 59 at Meridian.
  • Interstate 10 into Alabama is open and flowing adequately.
  • Highway 49 is open with moderate delays.
  • Interstate 20 near Meridian has traffic delays.

Then they link to an empty press release saying to avoid I-10 eastbound:

MS Highways 15 and 57 to MS Highway 26 east to Lucedale and MS Highway 63 to Lucedale and Highway 98 will take you to north Mobile and I-65.

If you are headng North on MS Highway 603/53 to Poplarville consider going into town and taking US Highway 11 to Lumberton and MS Highway 13 to Columbia and eventually Mendenhall.

The bottom line is the line to get through the I-10 tunnel in Mobile is very long.

Update:

I just heard from a friend who is on Hwy 26 in George County that tells me there is heavy eastbound traffic but it is moving at the speed limit of 55 mph with the exception of a 10 minute bottleneck at the traffic light at the crossing of Hwys 57/26.

Another friend tells me traffic on Hwy 603 northbound is light north of I-10.