Blog @ MoreWhat.com

Waiting on the debate

Companies push for an answer on wind vs. water
Mon, Sep. 04, 2006
By RYAN LaFONTAINE HANCOCK COUNTY - The federal government will give Terry
Jacob money to rebuild his Jourdan River home in a way that could
lessen the chances of it being destroyed during another hurricane.

But first, county officials must essentially choose a side in the wind
vs. water showdown between insurance companies and hundreds of
disgruntled homeowners in the Katrina-whacked South.
from MoreWhat.com staff:
We still shake our heads about this one. At first, we said yes, it makes
sense that one protects against wind and flood separately. But the more
we look at it, there may be something rotten in the Gulf Coast. From a
strictly common sense approach, if you have a hurricane and it brings
with it much wind and water (rain), it would seem reasonable that there
are both the possibilty of flood and wind damage. We understand that
specifically with New Orleans, there was a storm surge and that Lake
Ponchartrain sucked water in below sea level with the levess damaged
and then sent the water back out, but is it not all connected? A normal
combination of both wind and water initiating the consequences. Or is
it that insurance companies practice the art of denying claims whether
there is any basis for it or not?

Dale weighs interests of state

By ANITA LEE
SunHerald.com
State Insurance Commissioner George Dale has talked with the
Sun Herald on several occasions since Hurricane Katrina hit.He was most recently interviewed about insurance issues last
week, on his 66th birthday. Dale is the longest-serving insurance
commissioner in the nation. He took office in 1975.

Detractors claim he has grown too close to the industry he regulates.
Dale acknowledges most of his campaign contributions come from
insurers. He also is a popular speaker at industry gatherings.
from MoreWhat.com staff:
This brings up another interesting albeit tiresome point in the debate on
insurance, diaster and government involvement. From government and
the sponsoring of insurance coverage to the insurance companies attempt
to circumvent the nature of insurance to unscrupulous types defrauding
everyone, we may well end up with a great additional public burden or
no financial recovery from disasters but being able to buy two of every
thing we have with cash.

Congress unlikely to challenge insurers

By Ana Radelat
Clarion-Ledger Washington Bureau
September 9, 2006

WASHINGTON — Wesley McFarland, a retired doctor in Bay St.
Louis, became one of a growing class of Hurricane Katrina victims
when he sued his homeowner’s insurance company.

McFarland, 83, said his home “blew up, exploded and was washed a
way.” But his insurance company said it would not give him a cent
for his damages.

from MoreWhat.com staff:
The only example of a denied claim in which we would not have great
empathy for the homeowner is if they had done nothing to insure their
property. If a person makes a reasonable effort to protect themselves
through insurance, the end result should not be a denied claim.

There is another story out there in which the headline describes a judge
ruling each insurance company must be sued separately. Although we
can understand the need to resolve each case on its own, that’s not really
going to help speed this up, is it?

Post-Katrina Role of Property Insurers Threaten Consumers Nationwide
By Diane M. Grassi
Sep 9, 2006, 01:30

Given the focus on the recent one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina
by the media and government officials and its label as the most costly
catastrophic disaster in United States history, there has been little focus
on the nationwide impact the property and casualty insurance industry
has started to impart on homeowners and businesses in a post-Katrina
world.

from MoreWhat.com staff:
The effects of a natural disaster may be much more long term than the
public’s memory of them. The expedience of politics may cause more
harm as lawmakers and policymakers move on to the next uncorrected
problem.

You are encouraged to submit your own experience or anecdotes on
insurance issues in the comments

Company settles Katrina workers’ suit

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A construction company specializing in
disaster recovery settled a lawsuit with migrant workers who were
denied overtime even though they often worked long hours cleaning
up wreckage left by Hurricane Katrina.

from MoreWhat.com staff:
This would be part two of the story. There may be a connection to
the Southern Poverty Law Center in this story. Therefore we haven’t
determined yet if the workers brought suit or if they were encouraged
to by others. In any event, this would be one instance of immigrant
workers demonstrating their ability to not sit quietly while treated
unfairly. It doesn’t take long to learn, if you’re new here and complain,
it will make the news and the embarrassment of this for some, will bring
benefits. If you’re not new here, this is probably not your experience.

At MoreWhat.com we are fans of science and in particular, space
exploration and the potential benefits. At some point this type of
scientific knowledge gathering may be mandatory for survival of
the species. But when we consider this country’s debt load, some
recent developments via Space Ship One, etc., committing future
dollars we may not have to spend screams flawed thinking.

Lockheed Martin was given a five year $3.9 billion dollar contract
to develop a replacement for the Shuttle. One craft will carry crew
and the other cargo. Another option worth $3.5 billion could take
effect if more craft are to be built.

There are other companies involved and even Boeing remains in
the game after losing the bid to Lockheed. Add the connection to
New Orleans for manufacturing location and it kinda smells fishy
to us.

Okay you conspiracy theorist fans, go find reason for us to be so
concerned. There must be shady deals that have been hatched to
move this thing along. Besides, it will give some respite to all the
people wary of bickering about Iraq and other popular targets.

Link to Reuters story

MoreWhat.com staff

Checking the blogroll is something we try to do from time to time.
It may even cause us to make adjustments. So, right down the list
then. Ok, we’ll skip the first one mostly. 2nd MoreWhat Blog is
just what it says. We opened a blog at LiveUrinal LiveJournal to
post to a blog — needed to register. Someone thought it would be
handy but we keep passing the note with the username & pwd but
no one wants to take care of it. We’ll try later.

Allas Schrugs is some sort of anomaly. The super hero thing was
a nice touch. But the from the beach VLOG just shows how bad
the VLOG trend is getting. We also appreciate the reminder that
the best seller The Shadow Party is out there. Our first thought is
the book is a treatment of sinister politics which in itself is totally
redundant, but is this just one agenda working up a bad rap for the
other agenda while making a tidy profit at the best seller list? So
are question is the super girl pic on Atlas Schrugs a real girl and is
that supposed to be who is generating the content. Really, how big
of a staff. Her name is what? Geller? Whatever. Next blog.

Blog for America is a misnomer if you didn’t notice. What should
it really be, Blog for Dean or Blog for Dems or Blogging for $$$
or Blogging for Votes? Aw, we picked on ‘em enough this week.

Crooks & Liars seems left enough. Merely by the theme and logo
one would draw that conclusion. An open thread and what appears
a tribute to Free of Alright Now fame graces the top of the page. A
reference to a reference on macaca and Sen Allan is filed under, you
guessed it, racism. Whatever happened to Lefties slamming Righties
of being blindly loyal to big business and Righties slamming Lefties
for being tax and spend?

The Daily Kos with the long anticpated dedication to the Hurricane
anniversary for Katrina. Along with everyone else that has written
about it, Kos contributors lament the passing of things and an early
epitaph flavored account for New Orleans and other topics laden
with depressing rapidity. Only a visitor recently, may be it will get
better for us.

The Daily Pundit serves up a food post, a vague Tancredo reference
to a presidential bid and mention of Stone’s 9/11 movie. Well that’s
better than more Katrina babble. Essays and reports broadcast this
day have New Orleans residents (some) expressing their avoidance
of commemoreations today. Probably cuz the next day it’s just like
it was for them the day before.

Dems are next up and that’s reason enough to interrupt this elctrifying
review of blogs on our blogroll. If you see the page listed near the
top with Hurricane in the title, take a look. We try to keep it low key
but nonetheless wish to continue pressing to remind people not all the
ones responsible for letting New Orleans get submerged have been
help accountable yet. You may consider easing up on those whom
you beat to gaze at the other suspects.

Stanford Matthews

In an effort to quell the mob mentality and headline
grabbing partisan politics agenda, MoreWhat.com offers
some viewpoints not typically available in the main
stream media. And the viewpoints are not only from us.

The subject relates to the blame game on Hurricane
Katrina in light of renewed interest (why we don’t know)
as the anniversary of the disaster arrives. However, we
are not submitting any commentary on the aftermath of
Katrina or the quality of response by FEMA et al.

We have hinted at the ability of Governor Blanco and
Mayor Nagin to shift focus to President Bush and the
federal government for failures related to New Orleans
inadequate protection against floods and of course the
provision of assistance after the hurricane. We might
focus on this in a subsequent post.

Let the games begin:

from Civil Engineering Magazine, Greg Brouwer, 2003

During the past 40 years the US Army Corps of Engineers
has spent hundreds of millions of dollars constructing
a barrier around the low-lying City of New Orleans to
protect it from hurricanes. But is the system of levees
high enough? And can any defense ultimately protect a
city that is perpetually sinking–in some areas at a
rate of half an inch per year.

from The Washington Post
The Slow Drowning of New Orleans
By Michael Grunwald and Susan B. Glasser
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, October 9, 2005; A01

Local officials resisted the goal of Category 3
protection for their communities as overly extravagant.
In 1982, the Orleans Levee District urged the Corps to
“lower its design standards to provide more realistic
hurricane protection.” The levee district, stocked with
political appointees, could spend freely on private
investigators, riverboat gambling and a $2.4 million
Mardi Gras fountain. But it said it could not afford
its share of protection from a 200-year storm,
suggesting that 100-year protection would be fine.

from www.propertyrightsalliance.org/ Sept 2005

Scott A. LaGanga, PRA Executive Director
Research conducted by Katherine Boyle

The Truth behind the Barriers:

The Environmental Lobby Attack on Levee Construction
and Hurricane Barriers

• In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the political
blame game has begun, and fingers are pointing in every
direction. Lack of funding by Congress, ineffective
local and state government, poor planning by FEMA, and
deficiency in President Bush’s leadership are among the
favorite targets for partisan blame. Despite these
allegations, the Army Corps of Engineers’ prolonged court
battles with environmentalist groups demonstrates that
there is one faction that is truly blameworthy. The
finger should not be pointed at Congress nor President
Bush, but at the local officials and environmentalist
groups who prevented the construction of a massive
hurricane barrier to protect the city of New Orleans and
actively sought to hinder the reconstruction of levees
and flood control reservoirs along the Mississippi River
throughout the nineties.

Once again, MoreWhat.com is suggesting to all of you
in favor of simply bashing President Bush over the issue
of Hurricane Katrina to find another bashing topic. There
are enough of them and they are not all about this or Iraq.
Have you considered that being an equal opportunity basher
will likely gain more support than picking on one tired
subject. Especially when your anger is misplaced. It is
allowing other guilty parties to escape your wrath.

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