By Billy House - Media General News Service, March 03, 2009

WASHINGTON - A Mississippi congressman has reintroduced his bill that would add wind insurance coverage to the national flood insurance program.

In 2007, Democratic Rep. Gene Taylor succeeded in getting the House to pass an earlier version as part of a overhaul of the flood insurance program, which is already billions of dollars in debt.

But the language was blocked in the Senate, where critics led by GOP Sen. Richard Shelby opposed adding more potential debt.

The idea of adding such wind-insurance language to the flood program is to address one of the key issues driving litigation in the wake of Hurricane Katrina - the difficulty of determining whether damage was caused by wind or rising water.

Thousands of Gulf Coast property owners were left after Katrina with large uncovered losses because some insurance companies blamed all the damage on flooding, which is covered by the federal program, and not from wind, for which they would have to pay.

Most of those property owners were in Mississippi, but any changes that result to the flood program could have an impact on Florida more than any other state.

Established by Congress in 1968 after private insurers dramatically raised premiums or stopped selling flood policies, the federal flood program includes 2.1 million policyholders in Florida. That makes up 41 percent of the National Flood Program's existing 5 million policyholders.

Flood insurance is mandatory for property owners in high-risk flood zones who have federally backed mortgages. The federal program provides this insurance to flood-prone areas while imposing land use and building requirements aimed at reducing future flood damage.

In all, 95 percent of all Florida communities participate in the national program.

Under Taylor's bill, existing policyholders would have the option of purchasing wind-insurance, although wind coverage won't be available as a stand-alone policy.

"As we found out after Katrina and our fellow Texans are finding out now after Ike and Gustav," said Taylor, "short of home and business owners hiring lawyers and engineers to take their carriers to court, insurance companies routinely and deliberately fail to pay on legitimate hurricane-related wind claims. No one should have to go through this. It isn't fair to American homeowners, and it must end."

Taylor has launched a website to build support for his legislation. www.taylor.house.gov/insurancereform.

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