State Farm to settle $80 million in Katrina claims

Posted Jan 9th 2007 10:45AM by Brandon Barker
Filed under: Other Issues, Good news, Law

State Farm -- the biggest home insurer in the U.S. -- will avoid an endless string of court battles as they settle on 639 lawsuits over damages sustained during 2005's Hurricane Katrina. Insurance lawyers briefed by the company say that State Farm would, under a tentative agreement, provide an average of $125,000 to homeowners, with payouts ranging from a minuscule $2,000 to a whopping $2 million.

But this deal, for some reason, is only for residents of Mississippi (one state at a time, people), with the holdup centering on flood damage not covered under the claims. Flooding during Katrina was especially severe.

Before vilifying State Farm, however, keep in mind that damages totaling $5.2 billion have already been paid out in Mississippi and damages of $10.3 billion in Louisiana.

B. Brandon Barker is the author of Operation EMU

Tags: flood claims, Hurricane Katrina, HurricaneKatrina, Katreina, Katrina claims, Mississippi claims, MississippiClaims, State Farm, State Farm Insurance, StateFarm, StateFarmInsurance