New figures released Tuesday said 95,000 homes on Long Island were destroyed or damaged by Superstorm Sandy, but while many are still waiting for help, back in New York City, many home and business owners have found that their insurance companies will not cover their damage.
Amanda Zink told CBS 2′s Lou Young she’s still fighting the flood two and a half months after Superstorm Sandy, with the provision in her insurance policy saying anything damaged by flood waters is not covered.
Items damaged by wind are covered, but items damaged by flooding are not.
“I have wind coverage, so ultimately I could’ve been covered if this was categorized in that certain way,” Zink said. “But according to the (Hartford) Agency, it’s a flood, and a flood is a flood, and I don’t have flood insurance.”
Insurance companies are, in fact, interpreting the flood exemption so broadly that some New Yorkers who never even got their feet wet are having their claims denied.
The flood waters never reached the junction of East 18th Street and Irving Place near Union Square in Manhattan, but the lights went out, and many of the businesses lost money because that happened.
Places such as Pete’s Tavern had $58,000 in fresh food go bad. Normally, it would have been covered – but not this time.
The owner at Pete’s was told his claim was a no-go because the Con Ed substation near the East River went under, and that is why the lights went out.
Insurance broker Andy Feldman represents half a dozen Lower Manhattan clients in the same boat.
“Absolutely, it’s a shock to them, and it was tough to explain when you think it’s covered, and all of a sudden, they’re turning it, and no, it’s not covered,” he said. If the same business had been in Westchester, “Yeah, they would’ve had coverage,” he added.
The reason is that wind taking down trees that take down power line is one thing, but flooded electrical service – as happened in Lower Manhattan – is something completely different.
“It matters why the lights went out,” said Loretta Worters, vice president of the Insurance Information Institute.
“I think it changes the game,” added Feldman. “Everyone has to really look at what they have.”
The bottom line is that the experts say when something unprecedented like this happens. it forces us to think about things we’ve never had to think about before.
A spokesman for Con Ed said Tuesday night that virtually all power outages in Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn were the result of floods.
Read more at CBS LOCAL.
{Matzav.com Newscenter}
If I had 58K in fresh food in an industrial grade refrigerator and did not have a reliable uninterruptible power supply + generator with fuel for a few days, I would simply give away the food for free to whoever wants to take it. Weather forecasts said it all, and before Sandy hit NYC, it was quiet and people could move around. It’d have made many people happy, been a great publicity event for the restaurant, and avoided cleaning up and sanitating the fridge filled with rotten meat afterwards. A loss is a loss is a loss, sometimes one has to take the loss and move on. Yep, I know, Bloomberg would have ordered police to fine me for unauthorized giveaway of fresh food. More publicity 🙂
What’s the outrage? If you didn’t buy flood insurance, why should you get flood coverage? And the article’s only example of people not affected by the flood getting claims denied is the ConEd example. Read your insurance forms! That shouldn’t be covered.
Are these insurance companies violating their contracts or not? If not, how can they pay out more of their shareholders’ money than the contracts require?
START A WEB SITE.
Get the names of all these “crooked” insurance companies and all together go elsewhere. That could mean losses of millions in premiums.
When it comes to paying they know how to collect but when it comes to paying they wiggle out of most payments. Not only in flood situations but also in regular fire or whatever disasters.
Good morning America! I never buy insurance on anything. They are all a bunch of fraudsters!