Construction Owners & Builders Law Blog

Updated: A Mississippi federal district court has held State Farm's insurance policy form ambiguous and that State Farm must pay for wind and water damage even if tidal surge caused later caused further destruction, reports the SunHerald.

The breaches in the New Orleans levees during Katrina were caused by negligent design, construction and maintenance and parts of the system will still be flawed after current repairs are completed according to a just completed study reports the New York Times.

How FEMA's new elevation requirements and Biloxi's politicians ran the New Urban architects hired to plan the City's re-construction out of town is described in the New York Times Magazine (free subscription rerquired).

Dan Hawbacker over at the Construction Law Blog points to a number of reports dealing with the collapse of the levees and other Katrina related construction defects and failures.

The Times-Picayune presents an amazing animated graphic showing the time line for the levee failures and flooding in New Orleans during Katrina.

Tests by the Sierra Club indicate many FEMA trailers in Mississippi and Louisiana have elevated levels of formaldehyde that are causing victims of Hurricane Katrina to become ill, reports the SunHerald.

Mississippi Gulf Coast homeowners have accused State Farm Insurance in a new lawsuit of pressuring adjusters and engineers to rely on an engineering report alleging Katrina's storm surge arrived before its windd did any damage reports MSNBC.

The SunHerald, which recently won the Pulitzer Prize for its hurricane reporting, observes that the proposed new elevations are "one of the harshest realities of our recovery from Katrina."

"We've got our pants down and there's no way to pull them up" says a Pass Christian auto body shop owner in an article in The Clarion-Ledger.

A Supervisor in Katrina devastated Hancock County has proposed a tax on dirt excavated for use in re-building Louisiana levees reports the SunHerald.

Today Mexican-American construction workers, many of whom are helping re-build the Mississippi Gulf Coast and New Orleans, celebrate the Mexican army's victory over french invaders at the Battle of Puebla in 1862.

A panel of engineers has concluded "[t]he corps did not follow its own procedures in monitoring the rate of subsiding and rising of water levels around the city...and based the design of the levee system on outdated information...." reports the New York Times(free subscription).

On the eve of hurricane season home insurers are cancelling policies or refusing to write new ones in many coastal communities reports the Clarion Ledger.

McGraw Hill Construction reports on the Katrina levee failure analysis and rebuilding effort being led by the Corps of Engineers.

The SunHerald reports on an engineer's charge that his findings were altered, his name forged and whole exhibits removed from reports he prepared for use by an insurer in deciding whether hurricane damage was caused by wind or storm surge.

David Nelson at the Louisiana Law Blog suggests everyone prepare for the next storm by reviewing their property insurance coverage.

MSNBC outlines the emerging litigation, which includes (i) Attorney General Hood Jim Hood's ominibus case, (ii) Richard "Dickie' Scrugg's suits for Senator Lott, Representative Taylor and a host of others, (iii) Richard Phillips' class action and (iv) others attorneys suits on behalf of individual owners.

From the Washington Post .

Read all about it in the Washington Post.

probonolaw links to a brief but powerful video on what winter is like on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

A uniform building code requiring structures be built to withstand Category 3 storms would save thousands of buildings and billions of dollars in economic losses, cutting total damage by 68 percent the next time such a hit the Mississippi coast, according to a LSU Hurricane Center study.

Read all about it in USA Today.

You can download the report at the Governor's Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding and Renewal site.

Come on Down is the message Mississippi's representatives delivered to the construction industry at the International Builders Show, reports The Sun Herald.

Iced Coffee and a Bagel posts on the fears that led 9th ward residents to obtain an injunction barring any clearing of rubble from any household.

"Nearly 600 people who died because of Hurricane Katrina might have survived had floodwalls on two New Orleans canals not collapsed, a Knight Ridder analysis of where bodies were found after the storm indicates," reports the Nation.

Of course, says Ernie the Attorney, who posts on how they are coming along.

On Christmas day, The Times Picayune in New Orleans reported on lawsuits being filed against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and others for damages caused by Hurricane Katrina.

The New York Times today gives front page treatment in this article and the above illustration to the slow and expensive pace of the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers clean up efforts in Mississippi and Louisiana. The article confirms what local folks told me when I visited the Gulf Coast a couple of weeks ago to see a contractor client's clean up operations first hand.

$5 billion in federal relief for Mississippi homeowners who did not purchase flood insurance is on the way if the defense appropriations bill passes Congress, reports MSNBC.com.

living outsode areas designated as high risk for federal flood insurance will receive assistance if

Check out this practical "how to" article in The SunHerald on how to deal with the proposed new FEMA flood zone elevation requirements. The article also discusses the Mississippi Gulf Coast home construction market.

The Construction Law Blog points to an article suggesting the sheet piling for the levees complied with the plans.

The Louisiana Law Blog posts an article from the Toxics Law Reporter on this issue.

There is intense resistance on the Mississippi Gulf Coast to voluntarily adoption of FEMA's proposed new flood zones and elevation requirements for houses within the zones, according to the New York Times (free subscription required).

Probono law discusses the enormous legal services crises triggered by landlord eviction notices and foreclosures on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

The Illinois Trial Practice Weblog points to Wickilaw and Wex both of which aim at the whole of the legal universe and to the Katrina focused Lousiana Law blog Ernie the Attorney is promoting.

The stories are compiled over at the Construction Law Blog.

One of the more informative sources on Hurricane Katrina's effects on New Orleans is Ernie the Attorney. Now he's posting on the devastation in Mississippi too.

The design of the levees that failed in New Orleans due to Hurricane Katrina flooding "was a disaster waiting to happen" according to a draft report by Team Louisiana reports several prominent news publications. Link Link Link Link
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"Hurricane Katrina has changed the Coast's economy from a tourism to construction, but the real rebuilding hasn't even begun," reports the Sun Herald

Reassembling houses swept away by Katrina using traditional designs for shotgun and creole houses is promoted in a "Pattern Book for Gulf Coast Neigborhoods" being issued by the Mississippi Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding and Renewal, reports the New York Times (free subscription required).

If you are thinking all is proceeding as promised by the President and others to rebuild housing and reconstruct the Mississippi Gulf Coast, read this report from the Washington Post.

A Mississippi native son, Paul Raney, over at Radiant Marketing Group points out that Mississippi, the poorest state in the nation, also is the most charitable state in the nation.

Over at the RiskProf Blog they discuss how builders are selling homes built like fortresses to withstand high winds.

This headline from USA Today triggered a slow burn within me: "FEMA halts flood insurance payments."

Wal-Mart may embrace a corner store design for a downtown anchor store in Ocean Springs, Mississippi and a Wal-Mart village concept for a store in Pass Christian, Mississippi reports USA Today.

The Insurance Scrawl in an updated post reports that FEMA has promulgated rules relaxing the 60 day deadline for filing sworn proofs of claim and new underwriting guideline allowing payment of flood insurance claims based on the adjuster's findings alone and giving insureds 12 months from date of loss to file a sworn proof of loss if they disagree with the adjuster's findings.

Katrina flood victims face loss of their coverage if they do not submit a sworn proof of claim on their flood insurance policy within 60 days from the date of damage reports the Insurance Scrawl, even if an adjuster has not inspected the property.

Katrina devastated the legal system in Mississippi as well as in Louisiana. Solos and small firm lawyers were especially hard hit, as Carol Elefant points out at My Shingle many solos "operate at the edge, with little margin for error." The clients providing the bed and butter for these lawyers are consumers and small businesses who were also disproportionally affected by Katrina.