Posted on 04/25/2006 5:30:14 PM PDT by Amerigomag
A bill requiring Central Valley property owners who live in flood-prone areas to have flood insurance has died without getting a vote in a state Assembly committee. The measure by Assemblyman Dave Jones, D-Sacramento, failed Monday when none of the 10 members of the Banking and Finance Committee asked for a vote.
The bill would have required valley property owners to buy coverage through the National Flood Insurance Program unless the state or a local agency certified that levees provided at least 200-year flood protection. An area with such protection has a one in 200 chance of catastrophic flooding in any given year. Current law bars lenders from making or renewing a loan on property without flood insurance in an area without at least 100-year flood protection.
The bill was opposed by insurance companies.
(Excerpt) Read more at pe.com ...
WHAT?!
WHAT?!
Insurance companies would much rather do without the premiums than have to face a payout in a major disaster. The PRC (People's Republic of California) would never allow them to charge premiums commensurate with the risk.
Well imagine that!
Elected officials that refuse to vote or in this case refuse to even call for a vote......combined with insurance industry that doesn't want to insure something that they might actually have to pay out.
I would love it if insurance companies were willing to do without ANY premiums for anything, that way they get what they want....never having to actually pay out!
I do think that in diaster prone areas home owners should be advised to purchase insurance and sign a release that no government funds will be available if they should chose not to. I believe people should be able to live where ever they want. I shouldn't have to help them re-build year after year though.
The only problem. I was advised by my insurance company that I was in a lower risk flood plain and would be one of the last to flood. I've heard this from other people on the coast that flooded last year
I buy it anyway.
Thanks for posting this.
It sounds like insurance companies are not willingly going to be the go to guys anymore after all the disasters globally the last few years.
The liabilities for such a major idsaster are huge enough already and there are all kinds of projects still in the works in areas that could easily be affected in the future.
"It is amazing to me that the federal officials who actually did such a terrible job with Katrina haven't learned a few lessons yet. We need the federal government to step up and stop passing the buck. We need the federal government to stop denying the danger in the face of overwhelming evidence, and we need the federal government to step up and do it's job to protect the people."
--Arnold Schwarzenegger, April 20, 2006 [Source]
I love this idea, with one obvious improvement: The fed should simply not pay out any kind of compensation, ever, for something you should have been insured for in the first place. That way, nobody has to sign anything because the question of the taxpayer bailing out unprepared property owners simply wouldn't arise.
And they'll be the first ones in front of microphones demanding that the FEDERAL government "do something."
Sounds good to me.
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