There have been several reporters do excellent work on the societal issues Katrina brought to the fore here in the GO Zone. Chris Joyner at the Clarion Ledger has done several excellent stories on affordable housing issues for example. The list is too long to mention everyone but two reporters stand out from the rest to us here at slabbed for their coverage of the resulting Katrina insurance litigation, Anita Lee at the Sun Herald and Rebecca Mowbray at the Times Picayune. Today I highly recommend Ms Mowbray’s story Insurers Use Federal Cash to Help Pay Claims which contains a great synopysis of Louisiana insurance litigation. First she starts with a history lesson and then identifies the major issues:
The overarching question was whether the flood exclusions on insurance policies applied when the flood was caused by a levee breach. In other words, was a man-made flood a flood, and could insurance companies be held responsible for paying for it?
In August 2007, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court decision and said a flood was a flood. Homeowners’ insurance companies were off the hook, because people could have bought a flood policy from the government. Continue reading “Rebecca Mowbray on Louisiana Insurance Litigation”