State of Louisiana Should Not be Named on Gustav and Ike Insurance Checks to Road Home Applicants Louisiana Recovery Authority News Update Insurance companies should not list the state of Louisiana on loss payments for damage caused by hurricanes Gustav and Ike to homeowners in the Road Home program.  Read the complete story at emergency.louisiana.gov   Most locals lack flood insurance  (Dailycomet.com) Long before hurricanes Gustav and Ike soaked many local areas unaccustomed to flooding, FEMA had been urging everyone to carry flood insurance. Many have heeded the call, but most local homeowners still lack coverage against flooding, agency officials say.The number of federal flood-insurance policies in Terrebonne and Lafourche have risen by about 16,000 since just before hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 and now total 27,000. In Terrebonne Parish, 13,877 people have active national flood insurance policies valued at $2.5 billion. In Lafourche, 12,240 people have active insurance policies, valued at $1.9 billion. Read the complete story at dailycomet.com
Insurance chief urges limits on deductible use (The Times Picayune) Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon told a legislative panel Friday that he could support a bill at the 2009 session that would limit insurance companies to assessing only one named-storm deductible each year, sparing consumers multiple financial hits by hurricanes or tropical storms in the same year. Read the complete Times Picayune story
Insurers may pay evacuation expenses (The Times Picayune) Robert Chabborn figures he spent about $1,500 evacuating to suburban Dallas for Hurricane Gustav with his wife, daughter and two dogs. But when the gasoline credit card bill arrived Thursday, Chabborn wasn't worried about how he would pay it. That's because he filed a claim with his insurance company to cover the "additional living expenses" he incurred for hotel rooms, gas and food on the road during the unplanned five-day journey.   Read the complete Times PIcayune story
Evacuation claims no cause for concern (The Times Picayune) Insurance trade groups and vendors say policyholders in the metro New Orleans area should not worry about getting tagged for filing excessive or frivolous claims because they collect expenses from a mandatory Hurricane Gustav evacuation. Read the complete Times Picayune story
Bailout has aid for individuals (The Times Picayune) Another part of the bailout bill might help people facing casualty losses from hurricanes or other natural disasters. The bill eliminated the requirement that casualty losses must exceed 10 percent of a taxpayer's adjusted gross income before they can be deducted on federal income tax returns. The first $500 worth of loss cannot be deducted, however. The change helps homeowners dealing with losses from Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, the first major storms since many insurance companies started forcing policyholders to pay hurricane deductibles equal to a percentage of the home's value.  Read the complete Times Picayune story
Need to file an insurance claim?  (Houmatoday.com) Whether you have a few shingles missing from your roof or a tree in your living room, you'll likely need to file an insurance claim when you return home. No matter how extensive the damage, there are steps you can take to help your insurance company cut you check faster. Among the first steps you should take after returning is to thoroughly document the damage to your property, insurance officials say. You'll want to present your adjuster with the most clear, complete and specific information.  Read the complete Houmatoday.com story
Gustav proves costly storm for Louisiana (The Times Picayune) Although Hurricane Gustav wasn't as strong as Hurricane Rita, Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon thinks it could end up being more expensive because of the path it took through the state. Rita smacked Lake Charles and then zoomed up the state's western border through sparsely populated areas. But Gustav cuffed the population centers that were spared by the 2005 storms -- Houma, then Baton Rouge, then Alexandria and Shreveport.  Read the complete Times Picayune story
HURRICANE GUSTAVE, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Hurricane Gustav (pronounced /ˈgʊstɑːv/) was the seventh tropical cyclone, fourth costliest, third hurricane and second major hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season. Gustav caused serious damage and casualties in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, Cuba, and the United States. Gustav caused $18 billion (2008 USD) in damages.[1] It formed on the morning of August 25, 2008, about 260 miles (420 km) southeast of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and rapidly strengthened into a tropical storm that afternoon and into a hurricane early on August 26. Later that day it made landfall near the Haitian town of Jacmel. It inundated Jamaica and ravaged Western Cuba and then steadily moved across the Gulf of Mexico.[2][3] On August 31, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) predicted with 81% probability that Gustav would remain at Category 3 or above on September 1, but on September 1 at 9:30 a.m.  CDT (1430 UTC) the center of Gustav made landfall in the United States along the Louisiana coast near Cocodrie as a strong Category 2 hurricane—1 mph below Category 3—and dropped to Category 1 four hours later,[4] and to a tropical depression the following day. Gustav continued moving northwest through Louisiana, before slowing down significantly as it moved through Arkansas on September 3.  Read the complete Wikipedia story.