While his state’s Attorney General was calling for a law to prevent State Farm from stopping writing new commercial and homeowners policies in the state, Mississippi’s Commissioner of Insurance was telling a local group that most people with claims were treated fairly. George Dale said 436,000 claims have been filed and $11.9 billion has been paid out by the insurance industry so far, and more than $8 billion of that money has been paid to three coastal counties hardest hit. According to Dale, most standard property insurance policies say that rising water, driven by wind or not, is not covered.

Dale, the longest-serving state insurance commissioner in the nation, said the issues following Hurricane Camille in 1969 were similar to the ones in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. “After Camille what was the number one issue?” Dale said. “If the wind came before the water you had coverage. If the water came before the wind you have no coverage. What are we still arguing about 36 years later? Wind versus water. After Camille, every insurance company pulled off the coast except USF&G, and USF&G don’t exist today,” Dale said. “There was nobody left to write insurance.”

Dale also said the insurance industry is the worst industry in dealing with public relations. “You give free reign to others to say anything they want to whether or not it’s completely true or not, and the insurance industry says ‘no comment,’” he said.

Dale Comments on State Farm Decision (Laurel MS Leader-Call 2/17/07)

February 21, 2007