[IMRight]

That's New Orleans that's below sea level, not Mississippi.

Same difference... if you live in a flood plain you've got to plan accordingly.

You WILL eventually die... if that would be a financial burden, then you need life insurance. You will very likely need medical care over the course of your life (and lots of it). If you don't think you'll always have the savings to cover it... you need health insurance. You will sooner or later get involved in a car accident... you need car insurance if you don't have an adequate reserve.

And if you live somewhere that you KNOW will eventually flood (even if it's only once every 100 years), then you need flood insurance unless you can afford to lose your home.

[IMRight]

Interestingly enough, it takes something like a month for flood insurance to become effective (so you can't call right now from TX and rip them off).

I'd bet there will be stories in a couple weeks of the people in TX who saw Katrina and realized "I need flood insurance!", so they purchased some... but haven't had 30 days for it to become effective.