British tycoon rebuilds hurricane town

The Sunday Times - Britain ^ | October 16, 2005 | Robert Winnett and Claire Newell

[Panic in the Streets]

Wow

[calrighty]

amazing

[Paul C. Jesup]

If I had the money, I would buy stock in his company for funding the rebuilding of this town.

[ExSES]

Insurers are refusing to pay for flood damage and developers expect thousands of homes to be repossessed.

The land that those homes stood on will be repossessed however, in many cases it may not even be worth the cost of the legal proceedings to do so! The US taxpayers (and the national economy)will ultimately take the hit through the numerous housing guarantees/subsidies which underwrite home purchases today!

Like all articles being written..., the slant is that those "Nasty Insurance Companies" are refusing to pay (even though the policies they wrote SPECIFICALLY exclude flood damage). If you are in an area subject to floods (even tidal surges!) you better damn well buy federal flood insurance!

[Lorianne]

Cool. I wonder what Soros et. al. thinks of this?

[isthisnickcool]

This is pretty cool. But like NO is this really a good investment? One problem has been that the federal gov't has been selling flood insurance (it's really not insurance) in flood hazard zones when they simply should not be. The FEMA/NFIP flood insurance program is actuarily a joke. For example, in New Orleans which is surrounded by levees the feds sell flood insurance as if the property that has a 100% chance of flooding will not flood ever in 100 or 500 years. Why? Because if the feds did not sell flood insurance nobody could borrow to buy or build and then there would be no development in New Orleans.

By the way, quietly, a few weeks back Congress passed a law and Bushed signed it giving FEMA/NFIP access to treasury money. About 4 billion dollars. And that's the first chunk of money. To pay for flood claims because the $$$ is not there to pay the claims. Because, as I said above, it's really not insurance because it's guaranteed by the federal gov't. Which means that every taxpayer, even those that live in the middle of the desert somewhere pay for flood insurance losses.

What this billionaire is doing is very nice but does it make sense? Not to me but it's his money.

[isthisnickcool]

It's outrageous that anyone wants commercial insurers to pay for flood claims. The various states write the policies and they exclude flood losses. The AG of Mississippi wants the comercial insurers to pay the flood claims. They won't, it would bankrupt many of them. It would be different if they had collected premiums for it but they didn't and would not have because selling flood insurance in flood prone areas is just dumb. And the only one dumb enough to do so is the feds.

I heard Trent Lott on the radio pushing this idea that the commercial insurers should cover flood losses they did not insure. Lott is such a tool. But he is in Congress and that seems to be a requirement.....

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

I was thinking the same thing!!

the big movie stars are sure limiting their charity!

[buickmackane]

In Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, Canadian billionaire industrialist Frank Stronach plans to purchase two tracts of land between Simmesport and Hamburg to house 170 evacuees in "Canada Village." He has its occupants temporarily housed at a racetrack in West Palm Beach, Florida, and intends to bring them to the new community before the racing season begins on November 4th.

I would have posted the article, but just discovered the hard way that FR doesn't allow direct posting from the Alexandria Town Talk any more. Here's a link instead to a much more detailed feature on the project from a Canadian source:

http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/world/article.jsp?content=20050926_112690_112690

[Schwaeky]

THat's amazing what he is doing, I hope it doesn't put him in the poor house.

OTOH, it appalls and sickens me that insurance companies are weaseling their way out of paying for hurricane damage on account of "flooding." New Orleans notwithstanding, the damage was from storm surge and wind, meaning lateral movement, not downward movement of rain... Even the damage in New Orleans was not directly from the storm surge hitting the city, or there would be no more New Orleans, no the damage was from the levees breaking, which again is from storm surge--lateral movement, not downward movement of rain...

some people need to freep state insurance commissioners in the area and harass the heck out of insurance companies, because they are truly pulling a fast one here...

one of the few times I would say a lot of people need to get lawyers...

[krb]

Not that it matters, but here is a pic of his daughter (for whom he threw a $70 million wedding recently:

[GVnana]

He'll restore Long Beach faster than Nagin does the 9th ward.

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

Hank Williams Jr. Wrote a check for 150 grand, he said just showing up and singing a song at a benefit was not enough. He then went to Mississippi and held a benefit where all proceeds go to MS victims. Unfortunately, he is the exception for show biz types.

[Graybeard58]

the slant is that those "Nasty Insurance Companies" are refusing to pay

That "slant" jumped right out at me too.

[GVnana]

http://www.mittalsteel.com/NR/rdonlyres/37F870AA-DE6B-402F-85A7-7FDDD3333F59/386/2005AprilMITTALandISGannouncecompletionofmerger.pdf

About Mittal Steel Company

Mittal Steel Company is the world's most global steel company. Formed from the combination of Ispat International N.V. and LNM Holdings N.V., the company has operations in fourteen countries, on four continents. Mittal Steel encompasses all aspects of modern steelmaking, to produce a comprehensive portfolio of both flat and long steel products to meet a wide range of customer needs. It serves all the major steel consuming sectors, including automotive, appliance, machinery and construction.

For 2004, Mittal Steel had revenues of US$22.2 billion and steel shipments of 42.1 million tons. The company trades on the New York Stock Exchange and the Euronext Amsterdam under the ticker symbol “MT”.

Anyone got price and performance info?

[Graybeard58]

OTOH, it appalls and sickens me that insurance companies are weaseling their way out of paying for hurricane damage on account of "flooding."

You probably should pay it yourself. You are just as liable for flood damage as the insurance companies.

I live in a tornado prone area, maybe I should drop my coverage for tornados and if I suffer damage the insurance company will pay anyway.

[Paul C. Jesup]

Thank you for the information. It's to bad I don't have the cash to act on the information.

[Kimmers]

Wow.....Really like this guy....

[CondorFlight]

Thanks to Mittal!

And I bet that anything built by private industry will be completed faster, better, and cheapter, than anything done by the government.

Long Beach will be up and functioning before FEMA even gets the first check cut.