Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief Information» Download this as a PDF document The fact that you are reading this pamphlet means that you, like so many others, were affected by Hurricane Katrina. It may come as some comfort to know that this pamphlet itself was produced by a group of attorneys who suffered at the hands of another storm—Hurricane Ivan. On September 16, 2004, Hurricane Ivan ravaged the Panhandle of Florida, destroying thousands of buildings and displacing hundreds of businesses, including our own. Within days of Ivan's landfall, we found we were without offices while many of our attorneys and staff had lost homes as well. Our losses seemed overwhelming, but experience taught us that with the right information we could bounce back. And we did. Even before Katrina made landfall, we understood that someone, somewhere would need the information contained in this brochure; and we went to work. Of course Katrina's destruction was far more widespread than anyone might have predicted. We can only hope that in these pages you, as one affected by the storm, will find help. We have divided this pamphlet into three helpful sections. Section I is dedicated to disaster relief—the kind of information needed by those who have been immediately affected by the storm. Section II provides information for those who will be facing insurance and/or FEMA claims in Katrina's wake. Section III is directed to those in the Panhandle of Florida who wish to lend a helping hand. Whether you are a displaced Mississippian, a Louisianan with a troublesome insurance policy, or a Floridian simply wishing to assist those who assisted us last year, we hope and believe you will find this information helpful. As hurricane victims ourselves, we certainly wish you all the best under these terrible circumstances and hope you find all the help you need.
316 S. Baylen St. Section I: Immediate Disaster ReliefThe Most Helpful Phone Numbers & Websites. FEMA: 800-621-FEMA ((800)-621-3362) http://www.dot.state.al.us/closures/ (U.S. Official Disaster Site)
Missing Persons Information & Community Forums on the Web. Alabama: http://www.alaha.org/hurricane.html Louisiana: (225)-925-6626 or 7708 or 7709 or 3511 or 7412 Mississippi: (601)-987-1430 All Areas: 877-LOVED-1S ((877)-568-3317)
General Disaster Relief Information on the Web. http://www.fema.gov/ (en español: http://www.firstgov.gov/Espanol/Topics/Desastres.shtml)
Financial Assistance. FEMA Disaster Grants: 800-621-FEMA ((800)-621-3362) Home/Business Loans: (800)-359-2227 (Small Business Admin.) General Information: http://www.govbenefits.gov
Free Housing/Shelter Information. Alabama: http://www.alaha.org/hurricane.html#7 Louisiana: Alexandria: (800)-841-5778 Florida: http://www.flahurricanefund.org/ All Areas: 866-GET-INFO (438-4636) (Red Cross)
Equine/Pet Shelter Resources. Louisiana: (800)-928-5862 (pet shelters) Mississippi: (859)-225-2051 (equine) Florida: http://www.flahurricanefund.org/ All Areas: 1-(800)-252-7894 (AKC free supplies)
Schools for Displaced Families. Enrolling in AL Schools: http://www.alsde.edu/HTML/HurricaneKatrina.asp Enrolling in TX Schools: (800)-957-5109 Enrolling in FL Schools: (877)-352-2731 or email FloridaCARES@fldoe.org Enrolling in FL Pre-K: (866)-357-3239
Employment Opportunities. In Florida: http://www.employflorida.com In Mississippi: http://www.ajb.org/ms/ In Texas: http://www.jobgusher.com/ All Areas: http://www.jobsearch.org/katrinajobs
Contact Numbers for Banks and Finance Companies. AmSouth Bancorp: 800-AMSOUTH (267-6884) Bank of America: 800-285-600 Citigroup: (800)-950-5114 CitiFinancial Mortgage: (800)-753-3673 Fannie Mae: (800)-732-6643 Freddie Mac: (800)-373-3343 JP Morgan Chase & Co: (877)-226-5663 Washington Mutual: (800)-472-1254 Wells Fargo & Co: (888)-818-9147
Veterans’ Benefits Information. Veterans’ Administration: (800)-827-1000 Educational Enrollment: (877)-823-2378 GI Bill Benefits: 888-GIBILL1 ((888)-442-4551) Healthcare Assistance: (800)-507-4571 Voc Rehab & Employment: (866)-426-6638 Home Loans & Mortgages: http://www.homeloans.va.gov VA Life Insurance: (800)-669-8477 Servicemembers’ Life: (800)-419-1473 Veterans’ Group Life: (800)-419-1473
Food Stamps/EBT Cards. Alabama: email: fs@dhr.state.al.us Florida: 866-76ACCES (1-(866)-762-2237) Mississippi: e-mail: mdhsdisaster@mdhs.state.ms.us Louisiana: (888)-997-1117
Road Closures. Louisiana: (800)-469-4828 Mississippi: 1-800-222-MEMA (6362) or (601)-359-7017
General News Resources on the Web. Alabama: http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage (Montgomery) Louisiana: http://www.louisiana.gov/wps/portal/ (Official Louisiana Page) Mississippi: http://www.sunherald.com (Biloxi/Gulf Coast) Section II: InsuranceInsurance Overview. Insurance policies can be divided first between residential and commercial/business policies. This overview applies to both, with additional business considerations addressed separately below. What Policies Might I Have? Residential policies are usually referred to as “homeowners” policies. If you live in a high-risk (coastal) area, you may have two or even three residential policies. First, your homeowners policy would cover typical risks such as fire but will exclude coverage for hurricane losses. Second, your windstorm policy would cover against risks associated with the winds accompanying hurricanes but would exclude flood damages (typically defined to include storm surge associated with a hurricane). Third, your flood policy would cover against risks associated with flooding, which all primary flood policies define to include “overflow of tidal waters” (that is, storm surge). It is not uncommon for older homeowners policies (or policies in low-risk/non-coastal areas) to include coverage for wind in the same policy that covers fire losses and the like. Wind vs. Flood. Wind coverage is written by private insurers like State Farm and Allstate. Disputes concerning those policies will be governed by state law. Primary flood coverage is handled by those same insurers, but all policies are identical and disputes arising under flood policies will be governed by federal law. The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is administered by FEMA with the help of private insurers. If you have excess flood coverage (above and beyond the federal $250,000 limit), disputes arising under those coverages typically will be governed by state law. It is extremely important to locate or obtain copies of your policies and to highlight the definition of flood that is excluded under your homeowners or windstorm policy. Some definitions are broader than others and might provide coverage for surge-related losses that would not be covered under other, similar policies. In general, however, the insurers have taken great care to exclude coverage for any damage caused by rising waters of any sort so that such losses would be covered only under the “federal” flood policies. Other properties may be covered by separate policies. For example, if your car was damaged by or during the storm, you may have to make claim that loss under your auto policy. Insurance policies are contracts between you and your insurer. By entering into these insurance contracts, you have agreed to pay premiums and take certain steps in the event of a loss (such as notifying the insurer, mitigating damage to your home, etc.) and your insurer has agreed to fairly determine the cause and value of your loss and to pay you accordingly. Any failure by either you or your insurer to do what is required under the agreement would be a breach of the contract. How to Read a Residential Insurance Policy. To read your policy intelligently, it is important to first understand how policies are structured. Insurance policies typically include the following sections or similar ones:
Declarations Page. The declarations page (a/k/a the “decs” page) outlines each coverage you have and should reflect the limit of your potential recovery under each coverage. Typical coverages reflected in the decs page might include coverage for your physical structure (the actual building that is your home), contents coverage (which pays for personal items), other-structures coverage (which might apply to your tool shed or pool house), loss of use or additional living expenses coverage (that would pay for lost rents or additional costs you incur for living in a hotel), and any number of other coverages such as costs incurred to comply with new codes when you rebuild your home, coverage for your fence, and other special provisions of that sort. The declarations page also should identify every “form” that makes up your policy. Those forms often bear strange numbers such as HO-334-9, and for each one identified on your decs page you should find a corresponding page or section within your policy. In this way, your decs page serves as a table of contents for the rest of your policy. You can tell whether you have your entire policy by checking off each form listed on the decs page. Be sure also to check your files for any endorsements or riders that may have been sent to you after you received your original policy. Your decs page also will reflect your deductible. Definitions. It is extremely important to familiarize yourself with the definitions section of your policy because insurers use very specific and technical definitions for policy terms (which usually appear in bold or italic script throughout the rest of the policy). For example (and speaking hypothetically), the term “flood” could be defined as “the rising and falling of waters in rivers or other similar estuaries” or it could be defined as “any rising water from any source, including tidal surge.” Your entitlement to benefits could vary greatly depending upon which of those (hypothetical) definitions appears in your policy. Tab your definitions section as you will refer to it often while reviewing your policy. Coverage Sections. These sections describe in detail what is covered under the policy. For example, a homeowners policy might include as “Coverage A” your dwelling structure and as “Coverage B” your other structures and as “Coverage C” your contents. The limit of the insurer’s liability for each type of coverage usually will be set out in this section. Insuring Agreement. This portion of your policy will explain exactly what perils are covered. The coverage language often is written very broadly and then limited by the exclusions that follow. You may find that there is a separate insuring agreement under each coverage section. Exclusions. This is where the insurer takes away much of what seemed to have given under the coverage sections and insuring agreement. The coverage sections and insuring agreement basically say: “We cover everything except what is identified in the exclusions section.” The exclusions section then takes away very specific coverages one by one. This is where you will find the language eliminating coverage for flood, power failure, ordinance or law, and the like. Conditions. The conditions section sets forth routine aspects of coverage and claim handling. It will tell you, for example, how and to go about filing a claim, what responsibilities you have to minimize damage to the insured property, how the insurer will go about adjusting your loss, and what must happen if there is a disagreement between you and your insurer. Reading the Policy. In order to read your policy, then, it is best to follow this method:
Business Coverages. Commercial policies typically include coverages similar to those found in residential policies (such as coverage for the structure and its contents), but frequently include additional business-specific coverages. Some common ones include the following. Accounts Receivable. This will cover losses incurred due to your inability to collect on accounts receivable because of a covered loss. Business Interruption. This will cover lost income for a specified period of time if incurred due to a covered loss. Civil Authority Coverage. This compensates your business for losses due to forced evacuations or other similar declarations by civil authorities. Contingent Business Income. This covers loss of income due to damages suffered by others, such as your supplier’s inability to ship goods into the area (or its inability to ship goods at all) or such as your primary customers’ inability to do business with you. Extra Expense Coverage. This covers operating expenses that would not have been incurred but for the catastrophe, e.g., the cost of temporarily relocating, contracting out your work, and the like. Utility Services Coverage. This coverage will protect you if you lose business due to the failure of local utilities even if you are otherwise capable of opening your doors to the public. There are a host of similar coverages, often overlapping, and often subject to “sublimits” that cap your total recovery. Business policies vary from one another far more than residential policies and generally are more complex. Making a Claim. Reporting the claim is a simple matter. Contact your agent or simply look up your insurer on the internet. Radio and TV spots by insurers routinely follow major catastrophes. They will include 1-800 numbers for reporting losses. Document, document, document! The single most important thing you can do after a loss is to document your damages (e.g., with photos, video, handwritten itemizations) and document your communications with your insurer. Keep track of every contact you have with your insurer, including the date of the contact, the name of the person whom you contacted, and a brief note on the substance of your conversations, particularly anything you are told about coverages or the causes of your loss. Keep copies of every written correspondence you have with anyone, especially your insurer. Prepare rough estimates for the replacement value of your property, whether it be your structure, your fence, your tool shed, or your personal contents losses. Contents losses are particularly difficult to itemize after a devastating loss. Experience has taught us that a good method for cataloguing your contents losses is to visit a local department store or browse a department store catalog and take notes on everything you see that you had (from your $5 sugar bowl to your $500 or $5,000 armoire). Here is some advice provided by the Insurance Information Institute (http://www.iii.org):
State Insurance Contacts. Alabama Dep’t of Insurance: (800)-433-3966 Louisiana Dep’t of Insurance: (800)-259-5300 Mississippi Dep’t of Insurance: (800)-562-2957 Contacting a Specific Insurer. Several resources on the internet provide toll-free numbers for virtually every property and casualty insurer, including your own: http://www.disasterinformation.org/findins.htm For questions regarding NFIP (flood) insurance, call: (800)-427-4661. Section III: Uninsured LossesInsurance providers should be the first source of disaster relief for people whose damaged property was insured. But the next major source for assistance is FEMA’s Individuals and Household Program (IHP). FEMA has opened two Disaster Recovery Centers (DRC) in South Mississippi — one in Ocean Springs, 3164 Bienville Blvd. (old American Thrift), and one in Pascagoula. More DRCs will be opening soon in other locations. The centers will be open seven days a week, from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m., until further notice. People are urged to first register for assistance by calling 1-800-621-FEMA (3362). Follow-up questions or checking on the status of a claim may be conducted at one of the centers. IHP, which may include cash grants of up to $26,200 per individual or household, provides services to people in the disaster area when losses are not covered by insurance, and property has been damaged or destroyed. You must meet specific eligibility conditions to qualify for help. Limitations IHP will not cover all of your losses from damage to your property (home, personal property, household goods) that resulted from the disaster. IHP is not intended to restore your damaged property to its condition before the disaster. In some cases, IHP may only provide enough money, up to the program limits, for you to return an item to service. IHP does not cover business-related losses that resulted from the disaster. By law, IHP cannot provide money to you for losses that are covered by your insurance. Applying for IHP IHP is for use only by people in designated federal disaster areas. To begin the application assistance process, call 1-800-621-FEMA (3362) or 1-(800)-462-7585 (TTY) for the hearing or speech impaired or register online at www.fema.gov. The best time to call is in the evening after 6 p.m. or on the weekends, because call volumes tend to be lighter. If you need more information after you’ve registered by phone make an optional visit to a Disaster Recovery Center, where you will find local, state, federal and voluntary agencies to assist you. Have the following information ready to give to the person who takes your call:
The Process After you’ve registered, an inspector will call to schedule an appointment within a few days. The inspection is free. Inspectors are contractors, not FEMA employees; however, they’ll have a FEMA ID. When the inspector visits, you must be present. Have the following available:
The inspector will ask you to sign a form authorizing FEMA to verify that the information you have given is correct. Inspectors file your report but do not determine your eligibility. Within about 10 days of the visit, you’ll receive a letter from IHP informing you of the decision on your request for help. If you are eligible for help, the letter — explaining what the money can be used to pay for—will be followed by a U.S. Treasury/State check or there will be a transfer of cash to your bank account. If you are not eligible, the letter will give a reason and you’ll be informed of your appeal rights. If you are referred to the Small Business Administration for help, you will receive an application. Money If you’re sent a check, you can use the money for housing needs to pay for:
You may use the money provided for other than housing needs to pay for or repair: disaster-related medical and dental costs; disaster-related funeral and burial costs; clothing, household items, room furnishings, appliances, tools, specialized or protective clothing and equipment required for your job, necessary educational materials — computers, school books and supplies; fuels for the primary heat source; clean-up items; disaster-damaged vehicle; moving and storage expenses related to the disaster; and other necessary expenses or serious needs as determined by FEMA. Eligibility To receive money or help for housing needs, all of the following must be true: Losses must be in a disaster area declared by the president. Damage must not be covered by your insurance benefits. You, or someone who lives with you, must be a citizen of the United States, a non-citizen national or a qualified alien. The home must be where you usually live or where you were living at the time of the disaster. Your home also should be unliveable, unable to get to or requiring major repairs. You have necessary expenses or serious needs because of the disaster. You have accepted assistance from all other sources for which you are eligible, such as insurance proceeds or SBA loans. You may not be eligible for money or help from IHP if: You have other, adequate rent-free housing that you can use. Your home that was damaged is your secondary or vacation residence. Your expenses resulted only from leaving your home as a precaution. You have refused assistance from your insurance provider. Your only losses are business losses or items not covered by this program. The damaged home where you live is located in a designated flood hazard area, and your community is not participating in the National Flood Insurance Program. In this case, the flood damage to your home would not be covered, but you may qualify for rental assistance or items not covered by flood insurance, such as water wells, septic systems, medical, dental or funeral expenses. Source: www.fema.gov |
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Levin • Papantonio • Thomas • Mitchell • Echsner & Proctor, P.A.
316 South Baylen Street Suite 600 • Pensacola, FL 32502-5996
ph: (850) 435-7000 • toll free: (888) 435-7001 • fax: (850) 435-7020 • email the firm
