Insurance is still holding many down

Fitzgerald's Restaurant at West End

Tomorrow is Good Friday in the Christian world. Many companies in New Orleans still take the day off, acknowledging the still-large Catholic majority in the workforce. Good Friday is still considered to be a day of "fasting and abstinence," where adult Catholics fast by eating only one meal while also abstaining from eating meat. In some parts of the world, abstaining from meat is truly a sacrifice, but for a city located in between Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River, a Friday evening in Lent means going out for seafood. For many families, the place to go was out to the corner of the city where the New Basin Canal meets the lake, West End. Of the restaurants out at West End, one of the most popular was Fitzgerald's. Fitzgerald's was located right over the water at West End for most of the 20th century. In 1998, Hurricane Georges sent waves crashing into the restaurants along the lakefront at West End, wiping out several restaurants along the lake, including Fitzgerald's. The insurance companies paid up, because the damage clearly was caused by wind rather than flooding, but many businesses at West End found it impossible to find underwriters after Georges. As a result, many of the classic restaurants in the area never re-opened. At the time, locals bemoned the loss of these fine eateries and nightclubs, but it was generally understood that building on the Lakefront was a huge risk. We're now two and a half years after the storm, and insurance is still an issue for way too many New Orleanians. It's estimated that there are still over 7,000 FEMA trailers in use in Orleans Parish as residents fight with the Louisiana Recovery Authority (the state agency overseeing the "Road Home" program), as well as home insurance carriers like State Farm and Allstate. The insurance companies always try to play the game of "it's not our problem" when claims are filed. Wind damage is covered by homeowner's insurance; flood is not. Many folks file claims against both of their policies. While the federally-backed National Flood Insurance program has settled most of their claims, the private insurers have dragged their feet to the point where numerous class-action lawsuits have been filed. Several of those lawsuits have made it as far as the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, where Republican judges have backed State Farm like the dutiful conservatives they are. Without this insurance money, New Orleanians will continue to be stuck living in the poisonous FEMA trailers on their front lawns. This is why New Orleans wants and needs a Democrat as President. It's also why, for the most part, many of us really don't care which of the two Dem candidates wins the nominee. The short list of nominees for both the 5th Circuit and the Supremes for both candidates are likely to be quite similar. They're also more likely to be sympathetic to the legal battles that will be fought by New Orleanians for the next decade. For us, it's not about Obama vs. Clinton. It's about making sure McCain doesn't win.