The House is expected to vote Thursday on expanding federal flood insurance to include wind damage, a landmark change brought on by the insurance industry response to Hurricane Katrina.
Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Bay St. Louis, who lost his home in Katrina, pushed for the “multi-peril” provision to the Flood Insurance Reform and Modernization Act of 2007, after seeing constituents get little or no payments for privately insured wind damage and full coverage from the federal flood program. Taylor sued his insurer and settled earlier this year.
After pushing a bill for over two years, an invigorated Taylor is looking forward to the upcoming vote. “I’m excited about it,” he said. “I’m not taking anything for granted. We’ve got almost every Democrat and some Republicans on the Gulf Coast from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. It should be the necessary margin.”
Magnolia Tribune
