FiredogLake: NOLA's Fate is Our Fate

Over at Firedog Lake, there's yet another excellent article by Christy Hardin Smith.

Christy integrated several articles on what could happen to the country if one insurance carrier is allowed to stop writing policies in NOLA. The LA Times also weighed in with what could happen to California if insurers stop covering homes and businesses there. Read about it here.

Athenae at First Draft asked what happens to San Francisco, Chicago, Minnesota -- the US?

Next week, I expect, insurers will announce that they're pulling out of Chicago. Risk of fire, you understand, and in the final analysis it's not worth their time.

San Francisco? Too many earthquakes. LA? Drought (or mudslides, take your pick). Kansas? Did you see the Wizard of Oz? No way is anybody going to be responsible for yet another town wiped off the map by a twister.

It snows a lot in Wisconsin and Minnesota; ice storms down trees and power lines, pipes burst in the cold. Anybody living near a river could get flooded anytime, so forget about it, those of you on the Mississipp. Fry the whole state of Maine, too; I hear they get Perfect Storms up there.

If insurance carriers pull out, no businesses will build. And that's the end of an area--or even the nation -- as a viable commercial entity. To be sure, there are are some complex questions to address: Does the national Flood insurance program continue to underwrite severe floodprone or hurricane prone areas? If not, then how do we respond as a nation? If we are one, indivisible, does not what happens to our fellow countrymen and women affect us? Do our president's assurances that the walls around NOLA are safe mean anything if insurance companies think otherwise? And how does Congress provide appropriate oversight?

Link html:

http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/12/03/nolas-fate-is-our-fate/#more-5863

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-insure28nov28,0,2160798.story?page=1&coll=la-home-headlines

http://www.first-draft.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=7919&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0#home