Hurricane Seen From Space. Image Courtesy of NASA.
The Louisiana Insurance Commissioner has issued Emergency Rule 27 as a result of the recent devastating flooding in many places there. Policyholders in certain parishes are being granted additional time to pay insurance premiums, certain policyholders are being given additional time to submit documentation in support of their claims, and all insurance companies' powers are suspended to cancel or terminate policies due to noncompliance with conditions by policyholders who live in areas ravaged by the flood waters. Rule 27 is available on the Department's website at www.ldi.la.gov.
The Department issued a Press Release dated August 18, 2016 that described Emergency Rule 27 as reminiscent of rules issued by the Department after Hurricane Gustav in 2008 and again after Hurricane Isaac in 2012. The Press Release would have been accurate if it had recited that Rule 27 is also similar to measures taken after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. See Dennis J. Wall, § 2:13, "Claims Handling Practices Issues: Recent Catastrophes in Louisiana, Mississippi, and California," in Catastrophe Claims: Insurance Coverage for Natural and Man-Made Disasters (Thomson Reuters West 2016).
People in Louisiana may well wonder whether they are doomed to ask this continuing question in our post-climate-change era about emergency insurance rules issued as a result of natural disasters like floods and hurricanes: "Are we doing this again?"
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