Name:   Osms - Subject:   Gulf coast insurance companies Date:   8/14/2016 10:56:10 PM

There is no doubt a structure can be built that will withstand a hurricane, but a flooded building is still heavily damaged and potentially unlivable.  Concrete homes have a real mold and mildew problem all the time, not only after water damage.  Even though the walls will be standing many times Windows will be blown out and the interior destroyed, which doesn't help the insurance exposure much.  We built a house that was the fourth lot off the gulf beach on the coast.  After Katrina, the house was the first standing from the beach, but the windows were blown out, it had 5 ft of water inside, with wave action, 25 ft tide, w/waves, that dumped wreckage from the other houses against the structure causing more damage.  The house was brick veneer, stick built, two story and was repaired, and I was proud it stood the storm, but I believe a concrete house would have suffered similar damage and cost of repair.  FYI, we had sold that house a few years before Katrina.  Lesson:  Recovery along the gulf on the MS Coast has been very slow because insurance for homes is either not available or cost prohibitive.  The state allowed insurance companies to factor their rates based on a five year return instead of the ten year rate which had been in effect for decades.  Greed.