Declarations

Banning ‘Storm Vultures’

Senate Bill 101 “will ensure that homeowners and others who have suffered damage to their property are not then battered by the unscrupulous acts of ‘storm vultures.'”

—Mark Johnston, state affairs manager—Midwest Region, National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, commented on a measure sent to Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon that proponents say will help protect homeowners from unscrupulous contractors. SB 101 bars contractors who fix roofs or do other exterior repairs from offering to pay a homeowner’s insurance deductible as an incentive to be hired. Contractors would also be barred from representing or negotiating on a homeowner’s behalf for insurance claims.

A Hole in the Levee

“[M]illions of people upriver and downriver were in danger of severe flood conditions. The Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway was designed and built 80 years ago to mitigate these conditions and provide a last safeguard for millions of Americans.”

—Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate, in a joint statement on the artificial opening of the Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway in central Missouri to ease flooding in Cairo, Ill., and other towns along the Mississippi River. Not everyone was happy. A group of 25 southeast Missouri farmers sued the federal government over its decision to blow a hole in the levee, which caused their farmland and houses to flood.

Put on Notice

“We have a variety of types of insurance that cover damages. Certain carriers have been put on notice.”

—Sony Corp. spokesman Dan Race told Reuters that the company is looking to its insurers to help pay for a massive data breach. It’s been estimated that the cost could exceed $2 billion. Race declined to name the insurers or to say whether there was a cap on the size of any payout they would make to Sony. Sony has been under fire since hackers accessed personal data for more than 100 million of its online video game users. It has said it could not rule out that some 12.3 million credit card numbers had been obtained during the hacking. (Reuters)

Topics Cyber Flood Homeowners Missouri