In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Mississippi House Speaker Billy McCoy said the House would tackle the Gulf Coast insurance dilemma: thousands of people who lost their homes and have no separate flood insurance. "We can't make insurance companies do something that's not in their policies," McCoy said, "but ... we are going to take a lead role in doing anything we can."Not so fast, Billy. Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood thinks otherwise. He is suing five insurance companies, asking a state court to void the plain language of policies and make the companies do what is not in those policies. Gee, will they have to condemn the property first? Isn't this kinda unfair?
Homeowner policies for hurricane damage specifically exclude damage caused by flooding, and for good reason: Flood damage is far more costly to insure. Hood seeks to invalidate those exclusions and force insurers to pay as much as $15 billion for flood damage. In his complaint, Hood makes the incredible claim that residents bought homeowner policies to insure against "any and all" hurricane damage "with the reasonable expectation that these policies would provide such coverage."