MS wind pool insurance costs

[wxman57]

I understand what you are saying now wxman.

You hit on some good points MGC. Although, either way whether flood goes up instead of wind, the end results will still be the same because of the "required to have" wind and flood. Until they come to some sort of middle ground in both areas, we are all going to be insurance poor.

wxman, we do have very strict building codes here on the MS Coast and they are enforced. Those strict codes do not mean anything as we just found out with Katrina and Rita.

Unfortunately, we don't have very strict building codes in Texas. There are codes for hurricnae straps on Galveston Island, but not in Houston. As for what we saw in Mississippi with Katrina, outside of any codes not allowing any construction in a "surge zone", no hurricane wind codes would have saved all those homes which were destroyed. The codes probalby helped hold the homes together (in the wind) before the surge destroyed them, though. You just can't build a home that'll survive a storm surge, at least not cheaply and have something you'd actually want to live in.

[Lindaloo]

Maybe the codes should be like how they built the Longfellow House.

Before Katrina




After Katrina (minor damage)

[Javlin]

I find it hard to feel sorry for them with..........

The Bloomington-based insurer posted earnings of $5.3 billion, up from $3.2 billion the year before when payouts soared after a flurry of hurricanes including Katrina, the costliest disaster in U.S. history.

State Farm said catastrophe losses dipped by $4.1 billion from 2005, when the company paid out a record $6.3 billion for claims and expenses in the aftermath of Katrina, Rita and other tropical storms

How many years have they pulled profits like this % wise.Where you might say 10,20,30%,what is it?I wish my bank account could pull that kind interest.

[gtalum]

In 2005, when they made a $3.2 billion profit, their gross revenue was $59.2 Billion. That's a 5.4% profit margin. That's pretty slim. In 2006 their gross revenue was $60.5 billion. Their profit of $5.3 billion represents a 8.76% margin, still not really large. These companies, like all companies, are in business to make a profit. They have substantial risk and must maintain reasonable margins to make the risk worthwhile for shareholders. If you monkey around with laws to limit profit margins, many insurers will just drop out of the game.

As a comparison, my business has almost a 50% profit margin. I wouldn't get out of bed for a 10% margin.

[MSRobi911]

You know every time I come on this board I find remarks by people that say that we shouldn't live on the coast. So OK, if we don't live on the coast, where are you gonna get the shrimp and fish for you to eat and sell all over, where is the navy gonna get their boats built and fixed and where oh where would the State Tax Dollars come from for the "General Fund" for all of MS if not for the casinos and businesses down here? I don't think 1 little automobile manufacturing plant is gonna do it....OK I forgot, we shouldn't have Chevron down here pumping oil in from boats and refineing it for the gas for the cars in the rest of the US. So if you eliminate all those things...where would the "northern mississippians" be????????? WITHOUT seafood, Naval protection, state monies for paying things, and no gas for you tractors and your trucks and cars? Hungry, scared, the economy would be a whole lot worse because of higher taxes to make up for those lost from the casinos and oh yeah, walking or riding a horse cause of no gas.

So I guess a few of us should stay down here and do the things that we do every day, even if we have to pay higher insurance premiums. I really wouldn't mind paying the higher premiums if they would only pay the claims against them instead of flat out denying them. If they didn't give their "Top Dogs" humongus bonuses of millions of dollars every year, there might be some money left to pay out the claims that have been filed. But oh of course they had the money to pay their "so called experts" to send out word for word structural engineer reports to deny claims. Imagine, the only thing the wind damage would have been to my house was a few shingles would have been gone.............oh puleeeeessssseeee! If somebody sees any part of my house anywhere would you let me know? Then maybe I might have something from prior to Katrina cause we sure couldn't find not 1 wall, part of a roof, 2,000 square feet house of outside bricks, cabinets, furniture, well we did find the fridge, knew it was ours cause it still had the magnets on it And my insurance company certainly wasn't "On my side" so don't expect them to be on yours either. Well I guess I could rephrase that...they were on my sides...the neighbors to the west who had a slab too were paid a considerable amount of their policy for wind damage and we had the same agent and insurance company and the neighbor to the east was paid a considerable amount of his policy and he was 10 feet off the ground and had the same insurance company, just different agents....so I guess I need to change my name to Moses except I didn't part the water, my house parted the wind with Katrina, cause none of it did any damage to my home that was no where to be found.

Ok, I'm stepping down.................

Pascagoula Mississippi is my home town and I am proud of it and to tell anyone about it and I plan to stay here for the rest of my life. If you don't know about great things about the Great State of Mississippi, go to this web site http://www.mississippibelieveit.com and you can find out some interesting things about us, including the Gulf Coast!

Mary

[MSRobi911]

Linda, have you ridden down the beach lately? The Longfellow House is looking good, they have the steps back up and are steady working on it. Dr. Wiggins is finally working on his and a few others I have noticed are going up. But you know, it just isn't the same. Some of the newer houses don't have the "old house" look so they look out of place. I did notice that Trent has a trailer on his lot now...I guess he is trailer trash like the rest of us My poor block is still empty facing Beach Blvd and on Washington, makes me sad. Robi has forbidden me going to the "house"...errr slab anymore cause all I do when I get there is cry...but it's just so hard knowing everything you worked for and had for 30 years is gone and where you raised your children is gone......but I have to look on the bright side, we are alive and hope to stay that way, even living in "the Point"..hehehe (inside joke for us down here). You know they still haven't identified the 5 people that were killed 2 blocks away on Washington in that house that wasn't theirs. That is so sad!

Mary

OH and nice Patch...you really should have the SO's....maybe I will give you one of Robi's to fix up and I can use it All he had was the uniform on his back, but he did find some patches at the Sheriffs Dept floating around. It is really a shame that 3 of the 4 upper floors have been completely redone and NEW furniture in all the offices and the SO still remains the same as it did the day after the storm...I wish WLOX would do a story on that. Shoot as far as I know there was no damage upstairs except for a few leaky windows...oh no new furniture for the 4th floor (CID - Criminial Investigator Division) and not even all the ceiling tiles fixed! Where part of the roof was blown off, yea, no wind right, and water came pooring in, they didn't even get new paint. I think something is wrong with this, don't you?

[Lindaloo]

Yep, I rode down there the other night and it was great to see lights on, even at the very top. The Dr. Roths have done an excellent job!!

I am SOOO glad you posted that above about the coast of MS. Some people just do not understand that!!


I can email my friend Rene at WLOX and see what she can do.

[SETXweatherwatcher]

I don't know what to say. We were hit by Rita and after 8 months were able to return to our home. I had to threaten my insurance company with attorneys a couple of times but finally got money to fix my house. Couldn't get a contractor, so we had to do the work ourselves. It wasn't enough money but the rest we can handle ourselves.

I think I would have gone postal if someone told me my house was damaged by flood waters instead of wind damage and refused to pay my claim. I can not imagine what you are dealing with and I wish there was something I could do to help y'all. Y'all got about as much coverage by the media as we did. Since we are able to pull oursevles up by our boot straps and take care of ourselves, we were not news worthy either. I know what those winds feel like, we only went 75 miles inland and returned to devastation. One house fine, the one next door torn to pieces. Tornados, I am assuming. I don't live right on the coast of Texas but it only takes about 20 minutes to get there and this is my home, as well. I can only hope and pray that we don't get any more storms like Katrina or Rita for a long time.

[MSRobi911]

Thanks Setx.... it is hard, but like you say we pull OURSELVES up by our boot straps over here and go on with life as it is. Thanks too for your offer of help, just pray that these folks (insurance companies) get their acts together soon or our court case gets moved up...it hasn't even been scheduled yet, still doing the attorney/attorney thing between them...oh well.

And AMEN to no more Katrina or Rita storms! We certainly don't need any of those. Let them all be FISH!

Mary