Dark Water: A Year After Hurricane Sandy
Dark Water: A Year After Hurricane Sandy

LONG BEACH, N.Y. — In lines at the grocery store and the post office here, the usual pleasantries are still squeezed out by talk of the slow pace of reconstruction, spiking flood insurance premiums and whether the hospital, movie theater or sports club will ever…
Flood insurance prices expected to surge
Flood insurance prices expected to surge

A tide of flood insurance rate increases is rolling in, despite the efforts of state and federal legislators to stem it in waterlogged areas, with 25 percent hikes in the offing beginning Oct. 1, 2013. The nonprofit consumer group United Policyholders, which provides insurance advice…
UP offers flood insurance tips on what’s covered, what’s not
UP offers flood insurance tips on what’s covered, what’s not

According to United Policyholders, a homeowner’s policy covers falling and rain-driven water, so if the storm created any breaks in the house exterior — holes in the roof, broken windows, penetrated seals through which rain fell or through which wind drove rain inside — there…
Manitou business owners wade through muck to assess losses
Manitou business owners wade through muck to assess losses

More than 20 businesses suffered losses from the flood that swept through Manitou Springs on Friday and owners say some may not reopen for up to two weeks as they clean up damage. Many of the shops in the 700 block of Manitou Avenue and…
Lack of insurance an issue after Manitou flood
Lack of insurance an issue after Manitou flood

Many of the businesses in Manitou Springs that suffered losses in Friday’s devastating flood didn’t have flood insurance because they couldn’t get it for their location or couldn’t afford it, said an official from iManitou, the city’s chamber of commerce, economic development office and visitor’s…
Flood Insurance Workshop To Be Held Monday Night
Flood Insurance Workshop To Be Held Monday Night

Devastating flooding in the Pikes Peak region has hammered home the importance of having flood insurance. So many people in El Paso and Teller counties have been suffered–in some cases again and again–after an especially harsh monsoonal pattern season. Those living near the Waldo Canyon…
Outrage as Homeowners Prepare for Substantially Higher Flood Insurance Rates
Outrage as Homeowners Prepare for Substantially Higher Flood Insurance Rates
Slack demand, but big promise still seen for Hurricane Sandy insurance mediation
Slack demand, but big promise still seen for Hurricane Sandy insurance mediation

One of New Jersey’s efforts to help Hurricane Sandy victims resolve their insurance woes has had an unexpected result: few takers. Three months ago, the state launched a mediation program to help Sandy-struck homeowners and business owners settle disputes with their insurers over storm claims.…
DON’T BOTHER…DO BOTHER
DON’T BOTHER…DO BOTHER

When buying rental car insurance: Don’t bother checking the “yes” box and paying for Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) coverage if you’ve got a credit card that offers that same coverage. Most credit cards provide that insurance to their cardholders free of charge as long as…
Legal issues just beginning for Sandy victims, pro-bono attorney says
Legal issues just beginning for Sandy victims, pro-bono attorney says

Hurricane Sandy is long over, with reconstruction under way in most places, but for many impacted by the storm, problems are still piling up – legal problems, that is. That is why a cadre of pro-bono attorneys has fanned out throughout areas of New Jersey…
FEMA to Buy Out One Home on Old York Road
FEMA to Buy Out One Home on Old York Road

The township is changing its agreement with the NJDEP Blue Acres Program for the purchase and demolition of two homes on Old York Road along the Raritan River Floodway—because only one is now being accepted into the program.This program concerns the buy-out and demolition of…
Businesses pushing to settle claims from Sandy
Businesses pushing to settle claims from Sandy

Linda Schwartz had been running her Mexican restaurant for 29 years when it became a casualty of Hurricane Sandy.Schwartz waited out the storm in her Dennis Township home, confident that she had done what she could to safeguard her Avalon business, Tortilla Flats, by moving…
Insuring yourself against water calamity can make your head spin
Insuring yourself against water calamity can make your head spin

On the other side of the country, home after home is rotting, left much the same as the day after Hurricane Sandy landed in 2012. These are the houses of those who never bought flood insurance, which must be purchased separately from regular homeowner’s insurance.…
Flood insurance law hurting Sandy victims
Flood insurance law hurting Sandy victims

A little-known provision in some Long Island homeowners’ flood insurance policies could stymie their claims to collect for superstorm Sandy damage. Advocates and lawyers for property owners say it’s a loophole for insurance companies and the Federal Emergency Management Agency that is based on semantics.…
Toomey, Menendez clash on flood insurance
Toomey, Menendez clash on flood insurance

WASHINGTON – A debate over the federal flood insurance program sparked cross-river crossfire today, with New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez clashing with Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey over a plan to hold down premiums. Toomey, using procedural rules, blocked a plan to delay federal…
Insurance Policyholder Advocate Gets Sandy Grant
Insurance Policyholder Advocate Gets Sandy Grant

More than five months after superstorm Sandy hit the Jersey Shore, some owners of damaged homes, cars and businesses are still waiting for insurance settlements. Last week, a California-based advocacy group for insurance policyholders was awarded a small grant that could help them resolve their…
2 Problems = Zero Money: The Anti-Concurrent Causation Clause
2 Problems = Zero Money: The Anti-Concurrent Causation Clause

When disaster strikes it seems to happen all at once. Electric lines spark, windows shatter, roofs tear off, sump pumps stop and the lights go out. Homeowners see it this way. Insurance companies — and often the courts — see it differently. Major disasters such…
Flood insurance lawsuit aimed at ‘basement’ definition
Flood insurance lawsuit aimed at ‘basement’ definition

A federal lawsuit accusing insurance companies of unfairly denying flood claims could have broad ramifications for Long Islanders who were denied coverage because their first floors were classified as basements. The class-action suit, filed in Newark, says insurers are wrongly refusing to pay for flood-damaged…