Reply #5: yes, it deals w. homes utterly destroyed by the storm surge on the gulf coast

[pitohui]

the story of these homes on this mississippi gulf coast is that many were swept away, even foundations could not be found in some cases, as in case of my husband's boss or in case of a friend where we went seeking his apartment building and never found it...

there was literally nothing there, no way for people to get the money from homeowner's for the wind damage because there was no one there to see what wind damage had done (undoubtedly a great deal) before the water came and literally wiped these homes off the map as if they had never been

even trent lott says he didn't understand at first when his wife phoned him to tell him that NOTHING was left, as in NOTHING

state farm tried to claim then that ALL damage was done by the storm surge and nothing at all was owed due to wind damage, but there were winds before the water hit so...maybe state farm will now actually have to pay more than they would if they had been more straight forward, but scruggs and hood found evidence of wrong doing, so state farm is settling this to avoid any criminal prosecution

a case for once where crime did not pay

the flooded homes in louisiana are another matter, the majority of them are still (sort of) standing and it's possible with a great deal of hassle and swearing to get homeowner's to see that there were trees, etc. not just water damage -- for instance, a friend's house was destroyed by flood but there was also a tree in it, so he did get many thousands from homeowner's for the tree -- better than nothing since flood insurance only covers up to $250,000 and his home was worth more -- every little bit of help does help -- but he did have to get nasty, at first they only offered $500 for the tree, come on, a big old oak tree, that costs several thousand dollars just to remove the damn thing, much less to repair the damage caused by it