The Issue: How Gov. Cuomo’s references to Superstorm Sandy changed in different circumstances.
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It seems to me that when Gov. Cuomo takes the side of the victims and not the insurance companies, it is a good thing (“Was She or Wasn’t She?” Editorial, Dec. 2).
I was impacted, and so was my entire neighborhood, financially and otherwise. We welcome Cuomo’s words and the job he did.
I can assure you the insurance companies will try to weasel out of paying their fair share. Your hearts should be with us, not the insurance companies. Al Burns
Far Rockaway
As an insurance matter, the designation of Sandy as a hurricane relates to whether specific triggers allowing for higher deductibles should be imposed on claimants.
As Superintendent of Financial Services Benjamin Lawsky said, those triggers were not met, and many insurance companies agree with him.
There is no doublespeak on the part of the governor or the superintendent, and no inconsistency in the positions they have taken to protect the claimants and taxpayers of New York.
After 9/11, when George W. Bush declared that we were “at war,” headlines trumpeted that sentiment. If that were so, then many insurance policies would have been voidable, as they generally do not protect against damage from acts of war.
As superintendent of insurance for New York at the time, I fielded calls from public officials asking if that was going to be a hindrance to collecting insurance. Imagine the “ask” to the federal government back then if it were determined that insurance would not cover much of the loss.
Gregory V. Serio
New York State
Superintendent of
Insurance
2001-2005
Latham
Sandy was not a hurricane when she crossed the New Jersey or New York shores — she was a tropical storm.
What made a devastating impact was its conjunction with high winds and a full-moon high tide.
Hurricane Katrina is a lousy comparison. It passed to the east of New Orleans with little direct damage. The winds drove water west in Lake Ponchartrain, overtopping and breaking the dikes.
It wasn’t the hurricane that decimated New Orleans, but the flooding, accompanied by less than stellar responses by local government and FEMA. Bob Condon
Seattle