A group of former insurance adjusters who filed a whistleblower suit alleging that insurers have been systematically shifting the cost of hurricane damage onto the National Flood Insurance Program have asked the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to throw out a lower court ruling dismissing their case.

The appeal by the group of unnamed insurance adjusters known as the Branch Consultants LLC was filed less than two weeks after Mississippi lawyer Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, who had a competing whistleblower suit over hurricane insurance issues, plead guilty to federal charges of conspiring to bribe a judge.

Allan Kanner, an attorney representing the Branch Consultants, said an appeal was forthcoming anyway, but the stunning downfall of Scruggs, a famed tobacco attorney, underscores why taxpayers shouldn't have to pin their hopes on one suit to pursue fraud against the federal government. (source:nola.com)

Monday, March 24, 2008 - Columbia, SC– Home owners, business owners and car owners are still filing insurance claims more than a week after the tornadoes and hail damage moved through South Carolina. Nearly three times as many insurance claims have been filed as of 4:00 p.m. today compared with this time a week ago.

More than 11,000 insurance claims have now been reported to insurance companies as a result of the recent storms. The total estimated insured property damage is now more than $43 million. The average claim amounts are ranging from $3,000 to $5,000 on homeowners’ insurance claims.
The survey, conducted by the South Carolina Insurance News Service, included data from insurance companies that do business in South Carolina representing approximately 70% of the market.
(source:scinsnews.com)

PIEDMONT, Mo. - Residents stacked sandbags or grabbed belongings and evacuated March 19, 2008, after a foot of rain pushed rivers and creeks out of their banks in the nation's midsection.

Record or near-record flood crests were forecast at several towns in Missouri. Flooding was reported in large areas of Arkansas and parts of southern

The National Weather Service (NWS) posted Flood and Flash Flood Warnings from Texas to Pennsylvania. After two days, rain stopped falling March 19, 2008 in much of Missouri and Arkansas.

A foot of rain had fallen in sections of southern Illinois and at Mountain Home, Ark., and Cape Girardeau, Mo., while 6.2 inches fell at Evansville, Ind., according to the NWS.

An estimated 300 houses and businesses were flooded in Piedmont, a town of 2,000 residents on McKenzie Creek. Dozens of people were rescued by boat.

Outside St. Louis, Missouri, the Meramec River was threatening towns including Eureka and Valley Park, where the flood stage is only 16 feet.  A levee completed in 2005 is designed to hold a flood of 43 feet, three feet above the crest forecast for later this week, March 16 - 22, 2008.

The James River was approaching record levels of more than 33 feet above normal at the small Ozarks hilltop town of Galena, west of Branson, flooding a commercial strip and homes near the town.

Floodwaters swept away at least 30 homes from several towns on the James River in southwest Missouri, according to the National Weather Service. Several homes were seen floating down the river.

Widespread flooding in Arkansas had washed out some highways and led to evacuations in some areas, said a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management.

Some residents of southern Illinois had to evacuate. In Marion, Illinois, firefighters in some cases used their own fishing boats to rescued 13 residents.

Key roads were closed in the Cincinnati, Ohio area, where water four feet deep was reported in businesses in the suburb of Sharonville, Ohio.  (Source: 3/20 FEMA Situation Report)

COLUMBIA -- Preliminary estimates show that at least 3,500 insurance claims have been received by insurance companies so far as a result of the tornadoes and hail storms which moved through the state on Saturday.

The total estimated insured property damage is over $13 million as of 3 p.m. Monday and is expected to rise as insurance adjusters continue to assess the damage. The average claim amounts are ranging from $3,000 to $5,000.

Wind, lightning and hail damage and insurance claims are being reported statewide. There were many reports of trees down on cars and houses. Insurance adjusters are continuing to assess the damage and additional information will be available tomorrow. (source: timesanddemocrat.com)

Each year, the elite forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami-Dade County break accuracy records.

So it was last year, in their track forecasts for 15 tropical systems, including five hurricanes.

At the same time, however, the hurricane center again struggled with intensity predictions. Indeed, last year it amassed greater errors than the historical averages.

That said, for the forecast time periods of 36 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours and 96 hours, the hurricane specialists achieved the lowest track errors ever. (source: Sun-Sentinel.com)

LONDON, March 11 (Reuters) - Economic losses from natural and man-made catastrophes in 2007 were more than $70 billion, with insurers hit by claims amounting to $28 billion, according to research released on Tuesday by Swiss Re, the world's largest reinsurer.

Europe was hit hard by the Kyrill storm in January, which caused insured losses of $6.1 billion across Germany, Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands.

CAPITOLA, Fla., March 7 (Reuters) - Tornadoes cut through Florida and Georgia on Friday, blowing homes off foundations, felling power lines and snapping majestic oak trees as a record series of winter tornadoes continued to pound the United States.

The National Weather Service had preliminary reports of at least 10 tornadoes that flipped cars, damaged homes and interrupted power supplies in northern Florida and southern Georgia. Minor injuries were reported, but no deaths."

 NEW ORLEANS) — Louisiana's highest court waded Tuesday into a high-stakes legal debate spawned by the insurance industry's refusal to pay for water damage from the failure of levees in greater New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Lafayette Insurance Co. asked the Louisiana Supreme Court to overturn a state appeals court's ruling that the company's homeowner policy failed to exclude all forms of flooding because its language was ambiguous.  ...(source:www.time.com)

The following is from the Insurance Coverage Law Blog Posted By David Rossmiller

"UPDATE: I read it, and all I can say is thank goodness, it has been a long time coming -- finally, a case where the criminal justice system doesn't railroad a famous, rich, white guy!  Famous rich friends of Dickie Scruggs -- it's party time!

Although the judge did allow that it might have looked bad that Scruggs defied the terms of the injunction, Judge Vinson cited two reasons why the charge of criminal contempt could not stand against Scruggs:

First, the court had no jurisdiction because Scruggs was not active in the Renfroe v. Rigsby case -- he was the Rigsby sisters' lawyer in another capacity. 

Second, Scruggs did not violate the injunction because of its "law enforcement exception."