Home Care In Ida, LA

LAFITTE, La. —

Aug. 29 marks two years since Hurricane Ida made landfall, devastating many communities in Southeast Louisiana.

Jean Lafitte, in Jefferson Parish, was hit particularly hard.

Mayor Tim Kerner Jr. told WDSU that in the immediate aftermath of the storm, he was unsure how his community would recover.

"When that sun came up, I really thought to myself, 'Can we survive this? Is there a tomorrow,'" Kerner said.

Lafitte has come a long way since Ida. Many businesses have reopened and homes are being rebuilt. Kerner said his administration is also focused on strengthening the town's infrastructure, including gas lines.

A similar effort is underway for all of Jefferson Parish, especially Grand Isle. The coastal community saw significant damage to most of its structures and leaders have spent the two years since the storm rebuilding.

Councilman Ricky Templet, who has a home in Grand Isle, said there are more than 150 building permits underway on the island currently.

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"(Those buildings are) being built back bigger and better than ever," Templet said. "Let's be clear, all the buildings that were built to new standards, national building code, survived the storm with minimal damage."

Building structures that can better withstand major hurricanes is also a goal in Lafourche Parish, where Ida made landfall in 2021.

Parish President Archie Chaisson told WDSU that it continues to be a focus of recovery efforts there.

"For example, maybe we ice and water shield our entire roof decks instead of just that felt paper, so when the shingles do come off during the storm, we're not seeing that water seep in through our roof decks," Chaisson said.

The idea is to better protect homes and possibly, secure a discount on homeowner's insurance in the process.

Chaisson said a lack of affordable housing is another problem his parish is facing.

"We still have some 700 people spread out in temporary housing across Lafourche Parish. It's still a struggle," Chaisson said. "I think at the height of it, we had some 3,000 to 4,000 people in temporary housing, so we've dwindled that number quite a bit over the last few years. That's a positive sign."

Then, there is the ongoing struggle to secure funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to rebuild.

In Lafitte, Kerner said the local high school is still closed because the money needed to repair it has not come through yet.

"That school was devastated. Everyone knows it," Kerner said. "This community doesn’t work without that high school, and it’s a high school (which has merit that) should put it at the top of a list and we need to get it back."

Meantime, local leaders are celebrating every step forward, thanking citizens who spearheaded those efforts.

"People of Jean Lafitte, Lower Lafitte, Barataria, Crown Point, in the midst of their worst tragedy, they showed their greatest strength," Kerner said.

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — People in south Louisiana are still feeling the effects two years after Hurricane Ida made landfall as a Category 4 storm at Port Fourchon.

The major hurricane reached the state’s coast at 11:55 a.m. on August 29, 2021, with winds up to 150 miles per hour.

Blue tarps are still on homeowners’ roofs, Congressman Garret Graves said in a Tuesday statement. He said some are still spending time fighting insurance companies as they try to rebuild.

“We won’t stop pushing the federal government to get disaster assistance out the door in a faster timeframe,” said Graves. “We will also keep working to secure additional investment in hurricane and flood protection projects like Morganza-to-the-Gulf, Upper Barataria Basin Project, West Bank Project, and other critical coastal restoration projects to protect Louisiana’s coastal communities from future storms.”

In a video, Gov. John Bel Edwards talked about the anniversaries of hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Laura and Ida. He said the anniversaries of these storms can bring back “painful memories” but commends residents’ spirits for having the “will to rebuild stronger.”

The Louisiana Department of Health reported 26 Hurricane Ida-related deaths.

A day after the Louisiana Supreme Court announced that it is lifting a stay on hurricane-damage lawsuits filed by McClenny Moseley & Associates, state Insurance Commissioner James Donelon on Thursday issued a directive warning insurers not to use a letter of representation from the law firm as an excuse not to communicate with claimants.

“It has been suggested to me that some insurers are refusing to communicate with policyholders solely because they have received a letter of representation from MMA,” Donelon said in Directive 221. “The letter of representation from MMA is no longer valid given that this firm is absolutely prohibited from practicing law in the state of Louisiana. Therefore, the LDI will not now consider this a valid reason to excuse an insurer’s obligation to communicate with their policyholder, as La. R.S. 22:1896 prohibits an insurer from this type of business practice.”

Owners of property damaged by Hurricane Ida have only a few weeks to file damage claims. The storm passed through Louisiana on Aug. 29, 2021 and the state has a two-year statute of limitations.

MMA admitted during court hearings that it mailed 856 letters of representation to insurers when it did not, in fact, represent the property owners. The law firm actually filed hurricane damage claims for those properties because it represented Apex Roofing and Restoration and other contractors.

That admission led to a series of court hearings that resulted, first, in district court judges barring the law firm from pursuing lawsuits in Louisiana federal courts and then an order on May 10 by the Louisiana Supreme Court barring MMA from prosecuting any storm-related lawsuits in the state system. The Louisiana Supreme Court also suspended the law license of William R Huye III, managing partner of MMA’s New Orleans office, while the state Bar’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel investigates his actions.

The Louisiana Insurance Department fined MMA $2 million for “fraudulent behavior,” which also included presenting demands for payment and negotiating settlements with insurers without the authority of or even the knowledge of the policyholders.

The insurance commissioner’s directive tells insurers to contact Magistrate Judge Michael North with the Eastern District of Louisiana if they are trying to determine if their policyholder has obtained new counsel. The judge is compiling a list of former MMA clients whose lawsuits were stayed.

The state Supreme Court issued an order on Wednesday that will lift its stay on MMA lawsuits on Aug. 16. The court explained Edward J. Walters, a trustee the court appointed to manage the transfer of the law firm’s case files to other attorneys, reported that he has completed his work. The court’s order authorizes judges to stay proceedings for up to 30 days if new attorneys taking over MMA files need more time to prepare their cases.

New Orleans insurance defense attorney Matthew Monson, whose complaints about MMA led to the law firm’s downfall, said the law firm is involved in an estimated 6,000 to 7,000 claims, but not all of them resulted in lawsuits. He said he doesn’t expect any increase in litigation because the stay is being lifted.

“The two-year statute of limitations on Hurricane Ida creates a deadline of Aug. 29, 2023 to file lawsuits, so we expect an increased volume as the deadline approaches,” he said.

Photo: Homes are flooded in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, Aug. 30, 2021, in Jean Lafitte, La.

A family in Edgard, fears they could be homeless soon. They have a home, but it is still unrepaired since Hurricane Ida.

EDGARD, La. — A family in Edgard, fears they could be homeless soon. They have a home, but it is still unrepaired since Hurricane Ida. And they are worried the temporary trailer will soon be taken away.

The deadline for lingering insurance claims from the storm that destroyed homes across Southeast Louisiana, is fast approaching.“In the kitchen the entire ceiling was down,” Shalon Saul says as she tours her home.

She could have never imagined that nearly two years after Hurricane Ida, her family home in Edgard, would still be unlivable.

“It's just unfair that you do what you're supposed to do. You pay your insurance and they take you through these motions of going back and forth and for what? You know, I did right. You need to do right,” said Saul.

Shalon's mother was handicapped and ill. So, along with her daughter and nephew, all four lived in her mother's 4,000 square-foot home, to care for her. Then Ida came and destroyed it all, opening up the roof, allowing hours of wind and rain to shred their memories, room by room.

“It's so hard, so, but I got to keep pushing. I got to keep pushing. That's all I know how to do.”

But Shalon could not have known that the storm was only the beginning of a nightmare she still can not wake up from. Her contractor said for her to be made whole, would cost upward of $300,000. As supply prices went up, another said now it's more than $400,000. Her policy states her coverage comes to more than $650,000. But her insurance company said no, and wrote a check for $117,000. She went to battle with them and got another $30,000. So, with the $147,000 in claim money, she got rid of all the black mold, got a blue roof, then a new roof, put in new sheetrock, bought all the fixtures for new bathrooms, new plumbing and electrical.

Then a letter came in the mail.

“‘Unfortunately, we're not going to pay any more on this claim.’ And I already knew I was dropped at this point, but once insurance stopped paying, my contractor is like, ‘I got to move on.’ So, everything stops,” Saul remembers.

The family was bounced from RVs, to hotels, and relatives’ homes. Last year, her aunt passed away. Then, just months later, she lost her mom too. Shalon now wears her mom's image on her shirt, and her ashes around her neck.

“I feel like it was trying to break me, but I was fighting because I'm fighting for her. You know, she wanted to come home, and I'm going to get home one of these days. I'm going to get home,” Saul said with tears streaming down her face.

“I imagine there are a lot of people in Louisiana who are going through situations like this, where they don't have a place to lay their head at night,” said Saul’s attorney Wynton Yates.

Yates is an attorney with the Kherkher Law Firm. Shalon asked the firm to represent her when her case stopped moving forward.

“These folks will tell you straight up, ‘I didn't even want to contact an attorney, because I don't want it to look like I'm trying to make money. I just want to fix my house.’” said Yates.

“If the claim hasn't been fully paid yet, the likelihood that it is going to before the deadline, is really, really, really low,” said attorney Chad Wilson of the Chad T. Wilson law firms.

Wilson is an independent attorney whose firms specialize in property insurance. And he says after August 29, the second anniversary of Ida, property owners will no longer have the option to get a lawyer, and fight an unfair claim. He says studies show three quarters of people are underpaid on a claim, and around a fifth are grossly underpaid, or denied.

“Part of these studies, they found that the longer they can make the homeowner, or business owner, wait, the more likely they will accept less,” explained Wilson.

Shalon has been waiting for nearly two years, that's why she got an attorney before the deadline. Still her mediation hearing to settle keeps getting canceled and delayed. She and her daughter and nephew are living in a tiny trailer on her fiancé’s property. He lives in one next to her. He had no insurance, and got no help from FEMA, or an SBA loan. So, his home hasn't been touched since the storm.

“When I come out and do my prayers, I look at life, because if you stay in there, the walls are like, they closing in on you, especially after you're grieving,” said Saul.

Friends are going through the exact same struggle, but are scared to speak out. She’s scared with no insurance now, she'll lose what's left of the home. She's on disability for injuries she suffered, and can't afford it. People, like her cousin. “Miss Stella” help her get through the struggle, along with her toy poodle Jolét.

“I just want to come home. I see family. I see laughter. I see life again when I come home. Every day we get a new start, and that's what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to just take every day as a new start and see positive,” she said.

And then the family found a poem in their mother's belongings entitled “Don't Quit.”

“So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit. It's when things seem worse, that you must not quit,” Saul reads the last line of the poem.We have contacted the GeoVera Insurance company a few times for comments, and have still not heard back.

A GoFundMe page can be found here.

The practice of insurance companies revising independent adjusters’ damage reports may be as widespread in Louisiana as it is in Florida, according to adjusters and a plaintiffs’ attorney who has filed a lawsuit over it.

“They changed my estimate completely. I couldn’t believe it,” said Joseph Lahatte Jr., an independent claims adjuster who was hired by United Property & Casualty Insurance Co. to work a homeowners’ claim in south Louisiana after Hurricane Ida.

Lahatte’s initial estimate for a home in Cut Off, Louisiana, in the low-lying area south of New Orleans, showed $182,137 in damage, mostly from wind. With depreciation, the actual cash value was $178,551. That estimate, produced with the widely used Xactimate software, was submitted to UPC in September 2021. A few weeks later, UPC sent the homeowners another estimate, showing the damage was worth $35,830 after depreciation.

“I stopped working for UPC after that,” Lahatte told Insurance Journal last week.

Both estimates, on UPC letterhead, include Lahatte’s name. The one-page introductory wording is identical. “We completed an estimate of repair for covered damages to your property. Please note, depreciation may be applied to your estimate…,” the reports note.

Both of the Landrys’ estimates were provided to Insurance Journal by Kirk Guidry, a Baton Rouge attorney who represents the homeowners, Raymond and Tuyen Landry. The differing reports came to light after Lahatte, during his initial inspection, verbally told the Landrys that the home was almost a total loss and that his estimate would show that. When the Landrys received the final estimate from UPC, they were shocked and called Lahatte with questions, Guidry and Lahatte explained. Outraged, Lahatte printed his initial estimate and provided it to the family.

The family then asked a UPC representative about the huge discrepancy. “But all they (the UPC representative) said was, ‘How did you get the field adjusters’ report?'” said Guidry, who is with the Dué, Guidry, Piedrahita and Andrews law firm.

The homeowners filed a lawsuit against UPC in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, charging that UPC’s final estimate was “unreasonably low and extremely unfair” and that United was not acting in good faith. UPC removed the case to federal court. The suit has been placed on hold, essentially, because St. Petersburg, Florida-based UPC has been deemed insolvent and is in liquidation.

The Landrys will likely see at least part of their claim paid by the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association.

United’s chairman and CEO, Dan Peed, declined to comment about the allegations.

Lahatte, a former lawyer, and other adjusters said that UPC has long had a reputation for undercutting field adjusters’ reports. A federal lawsuit was filed in Florida in 2022, charging that UPC had engaged in racketeering by routinely instructing its desk adjusters to reduce estimates, and text messages to adjusters reflected that. That suit was dismissed by a federal judge who found that state courts, by law, should handle insurance regulation issues. A Florida lawyer in the case has said that the plaintiffs are considering renewing the suit at the state level.

Adjusters have said that other insurers and claims adjusting firms hired by insurers have taken similar claims-cutting actions for years – in Louisiana, Florida and other states.

“We’ve seen the same thing from other companies,” said Mark Vinson, a Louisiana-based independent adjuster who works claims around the Southeast.

He and Ben Mandell, another independent adjuster, said that insurers and claims adjusting firms have sometimes changed the numbers on price lists for materials and labor. While all the needed work is shown on the final estimate, the costs have been drastically reduced, they said.

Vinson and Mandell were two of three adjusters who spoke out about the practice at the Florida Legislature in December, sparking a controversy that has been widely reported by the Florida news media. The adjusters said that some insurance carriers have repeatedly altered their estimates but left the field adjusters’ names on them, an action they and some Florida officials have said amounts to fraud.

Florida regulators have announced they are now investigating the alleged fraud. Vinson and Mandell said they had spoken with investigators from the Florida Department of Financial Services.

“My hope is that we’ll get some arrests,” Mandell said. “If Trump can be arrested, then someone in this business can be arrested, too,” he added, referring to the recent New York indictment and arrest of former U.S. President Donald Trump on business-fraud charges.

A bill now moving through the Florida Legislature would prohibit insurers from altering field adjusters’ reports without including a list of changes, who made the changes, and why. The Florida Senate’s Banking and Insurance Committee approved the Insurer Accountability Act last week by a vote of 8-0. It’s now in the Senate Fiscal Policy Committee.

One Florida insurance carrier has denied ever altering field adjusters’ reports. Others in the industry have said that insurers may choose to legitimately revise estimates due to policy exclusions, cause of damage, depreciation and other reasons.

Questions About Adjuster’s License

A few insurance industry advocates have also questioned the motives and the backgrounds of the independent adjusters who’ve made the allegations. And critics are likely to question Lahatte’s veracity and the legitimacy of his work on the Landry claim.

Records show that Lahatte, who lives in Metairie, had his Louisiana adjuster’s license revoked in 2016 for failing to disclose that he had a previous professional license suspended. The Louisiana Department of Insurance, in records provided to Insurance Journal, noted that Lahatte was suspended from the practice of law in 2003 over allegations of commingling and converting third-party funds.

His probationary status was revoked in 2006 for failure to comply with the terms of his probation, the LDI and Louisiana Bar documents show. In 2012, formal charges were filed, alleging that Lahatte had engaged in the unauthorized practice of law. In lieu of disciplinary proceedings by the Bar, Lahatte resigned his law license. The state Supreme Court agreed and permanently revoked his license.

“I didn’t reveal some things that I felt were not related to adjusting,” Lahatte said last week.

In 2019, Lahatte voluntarily surrendered his Mississippi adjuster’s license, records show.

When asked if he had worked the 2021 Landry claim without a Louisiana license, Lahatte said he had obtained an emergency license at that time. A Louisiana insurance department official and a records request, however, indicated that no other records regarding Lahatte’s license could be found since the 2016 revocation.

“It is still cancelled,” said a representative with the LDI’s producer licensing section.

Guidry, the attorney for the Louisiana homeowners, said he was unaware that Lahatte’s license had been revoked.

Lahatte, who was driving a school bus last week, said he hopes to have his Louisiana adjuster’s license reinstated at some point, and that he is now licensed in Florida. Florida DFS records show that Lahatte held a non-resident adjuster license from 2013 to 2019, and an emergency license from 2019 to 2020. The emergency license was renewed in 2022 and is still active.

A Canadian software company now has an app that its founder said would help prevent insurers from altering adjusters’ reports. RocketPlan would post adjusters’ reports in real time and would allow all interested parties to see them, along with insurance companies’ final estimates, explained Joe Tolzmann, CEO of the startup insurtech.

The app uses blockchain technology, making it almost impossible to hack or fabricate data and documents, he said. The app also can be connected to sensors showing moisture levels in water-damaged parts of buildings.

The trick, of course, would be to get carriers to use the software and to allow policyholders to access it.

“We’re negotiating deals with a couple of insurance carriers now,” Tolzmann said last month.

Top photo: Aiden Locobon, left, and Rogelio Paredes look through the remnants of their family’s home destroyed by Hurricane Ida, Sept. 4, 2021, in Dulac, Louisiana. Homes across south Louisiana were damaged by the storm. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

Topics Lawsuits Catastrophe Natural Disasters Louisiana Hurricane

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Written By William Rabb

Rabb is Southeast Editor for Insurance Journal. He is a long-time newspaper man in the Deep South; also covered workers' comp insurance issues for a trade publication for a few years.

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