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this was sent out a while ago by former head of Fla Democratic Party..about law change for insurance for hurricanes in fla!
thanks jeb!! not! and dems are not innocent in this!
snip from letter:
The Outrage Before, And After, The Storm
Another hurricane season begins, and all eyes are warily fixed on weather radar for the all-too-familiar pinwheel-shaped cloud formations, threatening winds and flooding that ravage our homes and throw our lives into chaos.
As Floridians, we accept hurricanes as the price of living in such a wonderful state. But this season, there’s another far more threatening storm riding in behind the hurricanes. What makes this storm so insidious is that it flies beneath the radar, exactly where Governor Bush and the legislature want it.
In the final minutes of the final day of the last legislative session, the insurance companies (with the help of Governor Bush and a disturbing number of Democrats) were able to pass legislation which allows them to avoid paying to rebuild houses destroyed partly by flooding and partly by windstorm when a homeowner’s policy only covered wind damage.
Hurricane Ivan ravaged the panhandle.
A hurricane causing both flood and wind damage? This may sound like common sense, but Governor Bush and your legislature seem to think otherwise – they’ve legislated common sense into extinction.
The plain truth is that regardless of whom your policy is with, you have less coverage this year than last. And you will most likely be paying more for this greatly diminished coverage.
Until the legislature passed this law, insurers were required to pay full policy limits when a home is a total loss, so long as windstorm was a contributing factor to the total loss. The new law requires that insurance companies pay only for the portion of the damage caused by the threat they cover, just wind or just flood. And the homeowner has the almost impossible burden of proving how much of the damage was caused by wind after the storm has destroyed their home.
Earlier this year I represented over 500 hurricane victims in a case against state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp. These victims were struggling to recover from Hurricane Ivan even as a new season of hurricanes was bearing down upon them. Imagine watching the Weather Channel for signs of a hurricane while a blue tarp flaps above your head. In this case, the judge ruled that Citizens should pay the full amount of their policy, regardless of whether wind or storm surge destroyed their homes, so long as wind was a contributing factor. Citizens has appealed the ruling.
Make no mistake: This law is a giant giveaway to the same insurance companies that have donated millions of dollars to Governor Bush and the legislature. In the 2002 and 2004 election cycles, big insurance companies pumped nearly $19 million into Florida's state campaigns. The biggest recipients? Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher, followed by Gov. Jeb Bush and lawmakers who just so happen to serve on the House and Senate committees charged with regulating insurance.
But for hurricane victims battening down the hatches waiting for more storms, the appearance created by all this money just adds insult to injury. Any legislator who voted for the new rules should be ashamed of themselves for the position they’ve put hurricane victims in.
Since 1982 we’ve had a law in Florida designed to protect victims who lose their homes to the wind and flooding brought by a hurricane. Sadly, these protections are no more.
Hurricanes come in categories, not flavors – there’s no such thing as a ‘windy’ hurricane or a ‘floody’ hurricane. There are just hurricanes, and homeowners who have paid their premiums for both wind and flood damage deserve to be covered for both. This new law gives the insurance companies yet another advantage over the everyday Floridian. It's wrong, and the Legislature should fix it immediately.
While Floridians can see a hurricane coming, they as yet have no idea about the storm of financial hardships that will now follow on its heels if we don’t immediately reverse this disastrous legislation.
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