Former FEMA Director Witt Advocates Need for National CAT Fund

January 19, 2006

  • January 19, 2006 at 11:33 am
    heydude says:
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    Nice to be a paid flunky for Allstate, eh, Mr. Witt? Did you happen to notice the lack of other insurers in your coalition?

  • January 20, 2006 at 7:38 am
    walt hollenbeck says:
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    Ms. Neuman is absolutely right about the NewMadrid Earthquakes. They are possibly the most unreported catastrophes to hit the lower 48 states. They rocked the central states and changed the course of the Mississippi River.

    Certainly, the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 caused more loss of life and resulted in more economic damage, but if either of the New Madrid earthquakes were to repeat today, the result would be an unrivaled disaster.

    We don\’t need to worry, because it won\’t happen. Right?

  • January 20, 2006 at 1:40 am
    alexis neuman says:
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    Would anyone really take seriously the comments of someone who\’s screen name is Hey Dude.

    Get a life. Catastrophes are deadly serious.

  • January 20, 2006 at 1:56 am
    CrunchMaster says:
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    I live in Michigan. Why should I pay my tax dollars to help support people who want to live in hurricane prone areas?

    I\’m barely making end meet now as it is. I don\’t want to subsidize them so that they can live somewhere close to the coast. I\’de like to keep my $$$ thank you.

  • January 20, 2006 at 2:24 am
    Open Your Eyes says:
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    Hey CrunchMaster open your eyes. Do you not see the raging fires in the mid west, have you not heard of the tornatoes in tornato alley and what about the snow storms up north? Flooding along any river in the USS?? There are disasters all over this county not just in Florida or California. Not everyone that was affected by a disaster lived on the coast. Stop blaming Floridians for all the bad things happending in the weather. You northerners don\’t seem to have a problem wintering in Florida. I was born and raised in Florida but according to people like you, I should just spend a few thousand dollars and just pack up my family, leave my friends and find a new job up north or west. Where – mudslide, snow storm, tornato, drought, fires or earthquake territory? Tell me where I will be safe from disaster. You complainers are really starting to make me sick.

  • January 20, 2006 at 2:43 am
    Texan10 says:
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    Not to be picky…but it\’s \”tornado\”–it\’s hard to be on your side when you can\’t spell a pretty large natural disaster. It\’s not like you had to spell \”tsunami\”…and it\’s a lot more complicated than you\’d like it to be. Wages in the midwest are depressed because folks are moving to the coasts, which drives new business to the coasts, which leaves those folks in the middle with old industry, like car manufacturing and steel, that are wallowing after centuries of carrying the U.S., etc. Basically, this isn\’t about Ina In Indiana telling Fred in Florida to jump in the lake. And it\’s interesting that it\’s only Allstate out front–with a federal backstop they can take even MORE marketshare and maybe even take over the world.

  • January 20, 2006 at 3:27 am
    alexis neuman says:
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    2 of the 10 strongest earthquakes to hit the US were the New Madrid earthquakes in 1810 ann 1812. Had the Richter Scale been in use at the time, it is estimated that they would have reache 8.4. Those quakes were more powerful than the San Fran Earthquake. They struck in the dead center of the US. That\’s why people from Michigan should care.

  • January 22, 2006 at 3:57 am
    Bob M says:
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    A National Cat fund would be a political solution that would have far reaching consequences. By replacing market rates with politically correct rating we would depress rates in cat prone areas and spur economic development in high hazard areas.

    There will always be cat capacity if the returns are there. By messing with the rating structure we will encourage more exposure in cat prone areas, leading to higher losses for America\’s largest mutual insurer-the taxpayer!

  • January 23, 2006 at 1:31 am
    CrunchMaster says:
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    #1) I don\’t know what a tornato is.
    #2) Tornados have hit Michigan, and will likely continue to hit it. They usually end up costing at most a couple million dollars of insured losses. Nowhere near the damage of the typical hurricane.
    #3) It does snow here in Michigan, but even in a 12 inch snowfall / blizzard insured losses are low.
    #4) Wildfires don\’t really hit Michigan.
    #5) No Mudslides hit Michigan.
    #6) New Madrid is a a serious fault line but it\’s far away enough away from the densly populated areas of Michigan.
    #7) Sounds like you are the complainer, not me. You keep complaining that people should subsidize your lifestyle because you want to live in very Cat prone areas.

    How about if they do create a national cat plan, they fund it with payments from the various states based upon risk. I would be fine paying into the fund as a taxpayer, just don\’t ask me to pay the same amount as people who live in the cat prone areas.

  • January 23, 2006 at 1:34 am
    CrunchMaster says:
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    It was \”Open Your Eyes\” and not CrunchMaster that spelled tornado wrong.



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