[legion]

Mississippi Governor Prefers Talks to Suit On Flood Insurance
JACKSON, Miss.(The Wall Street Journal)--Republican Gov. Haley Barbour said late last week that he preferred to negotiate with insurance companies to help homeowners who lacked flood insurance rebuild their property, saying a lawsuit could push the companies out of Mississippi.
Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood has sued major insurers on behalf of Mississippi residents whose homes were destroyed by water instead of wind. He said a standard homeowner's policy should cover hurricane damage, whether the loss came from wind or wind-driven water such as a storm surge.

Insurance companies contend homeowners should have bought additional flood protection. The governor said forcing the companies to pay for flood damage could bankrupt them or drive them elsewhere.

"It's crucial that people who enter into contracts keep their contracts," Mr. Barbour said. "And that's what an insurance policy is, it's a contract."

The governor said insurance companies "must be held to these contracts." But he also said many people, particularly those who did not live in a flood plain, didn't have flood coverage.

"For those people, we are working very hard that if they don't have insurance or if they don't have coverage, that we can come up with a way to help them financially, help to make them whole," Mr. Barbour said.

Insurance Commissioner George Dale, a Democrat, sided with the governor. He asked the Mississippi congressional delegation to seek a bailout for those lacking insurance coverage.

"The insurance industry can take care of so many. The flood insurance program can take care of so many," Mr. Dale said. "But there is still others out there that do not fit under either of those. We cannot let them just absolutely be made bankrupt. It would kill our economy.

So Mississipi's approach is to make corporations pay for reconstruction. Louisiana's approach is to make the federal government pay (and all of us). I haven't heard anyone float the idea of making the guy who built his house on the coast pay...