Katrina’s winds too weak to destroy houses, State Farm claims manager says
Attorneys for former insurance adjusters Cori and Kerri Rigsby played her videotaped testimony on the third day of trial in their lawsuit that accuses State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. of defrauding the federal government by overcharging the National Flood Insurance Program for damage from Katrina’s tidal surge.
The trial, before Judge Sul Ozerden in U.S. District Court in Gulfport, is limited to State Farm’s handling of the claim of Biloxi homeowners Thomas and Pamela McIntosh.
State Farm paid flood policy limits of $250,000 on the claim, offering $36,000 for wind damage. The first engineering report on the property blamed wind for the loss, based partly on an eyewitness account about wind and wind-driven debris hitting the McIntosh home.
King said she fired the engineering firm, but later the firm was reinstated and allowed to complete a second report on the property by a different engineer. The second report concluded flooding caused the loss.
King pointed out during the testimony that up to 5.5 feet of water flooded the McIntosh home on the Tchoutacabouffa River.
Sun Herald
3/27/13
Magnolia Tribune
