Can't Get Insured Near Water

Allstate is getting away with practically large scale robbery.

They have been insuring in NYC for decades and now, after years of collecting premiums with no major disasters, they are taking the money and running.

Supposedly, they are to pull out of the area 1% at a time, but from what I'm seeing they are leaving much faster.
Same goes for other major insurers.

New York state runs it's own insurance program, you'll have to get a windstorm inspection though. The prices are reasonable however.

Bottom line, NYC is due for a major hurricane or storm. It's happened before, 1930's a Cat. 3 hit near JFK,
in the 1890's it must have been a Cat. 4 or 5 because it took out an island off of the rockaways which used to be a summer resort (it no longer exists)and lower manhattan was completely flooded as well as large areas of southern Brooklyn.

Posted by: Legion at May 12, 2009 9:59 AM

here we go again,

first off randolph; I'm an asshat? well I guess that makes you an assclown since you don't want to learn from history.

next joe the bummer; what don't you understand about statistical analysis? obviously that's the basis of the entire insurance industry, that's why they employ mathematicians and actuaries. They keep tables, on how long you live on average, on who files claims on average, on how much risk there is to a certain area, on average.
...and on average, the NYC area is due for a major storm of some sort. While these storms are random, it is well understood where the storms hit and when the season for hurricanes occurs. The NYC area is in a natural catch basin for Atlantic storms that move up the East Coast because Long Island forms a sort of L shape with New Jersey. Guess where the vertex of the angle is?...NY Harbor.

what's more, Allstate was already competing with the state plan. This is not some sort of rant against corporate greed. just an observation of the nature of these insurance companies and how they profit at taxpayer's expense by reaping the rewards, then run away and leave the tax payer funded plans to pick up where they left off.

Posted by: Legion at May 12, 2009 11:42 AM

ok, let's try this once again.

There are certain places on earth where natural phenomena occur. They are predictable and although random in distribution and location, consistent in their presence.

These trends have been studied and recorded over time.

For instance;

We know that there is a "ring of fire" along the Pacific ocean which is manifested by volcanic activity (75% of the earth's volcanic activity) and earthquake activity (90% of the planet's earthquake activity.

We know that the mid-western plains of the United states are the most active area of tornado activity on the planet and every summer brings massive atmospheric turbulence and a new crop of twisters.

We know that the strongest winds on earth are to be found at the top of Mt. Washington in New Hampshire.

We know that every year the Atlantic produces a crop of Hurricanes which start off the coast of Southern Africa, move Westward towards the Carribean and either turn upwards into the North Atlantic/Eastern seaboard or more commonly barrel over the carribbean and into the Gulf of Mexico.

We know that over the past hundred years of recorded hurricanes, there are a certain number of each catagory and most common routes taken. Analyzing the statistics allows scientists and meterologists to predict with some degree of certainty the probability of a hurricaine hitting a certain area.

Ergo, NYC is "due" for a Hurricane, based on past hurricane activity in this area. Not on some whim, like saying London is "due" for a hurricane (because London does not get hurricanes) or saying NYC is "due" for a volcanic eruption (because NYC is not lying over significant volcanic activity sites). It's all about math and statistics you see. Sort of like saying we are due for rain soon, because, on average, if it hasn't rained in NYC for 4 straight days, you can usually say it will rain soon. You can't say the same in Las Vegas though, where it can go for weeks or months without rain.

by the way, this has nothing to do with the "global warming" debate. I happen to believe that the global warming activity is more of a planetary clyclical phenomenon rather than a strictly man-made problem. This is based on the fact that we have had ice ages and warming trends before the existence of man. I also hear that Mars is warming up... and Mars has no humans according to Rover.

Posted by: Legion at May 12, 2009 9:45 PM