Alabama Insurance

Although the concern on his face said otherwise, Elizabeth Casey tries to remain optimistic because she said Renee Evans, State Farm representative here on the damage Hurricane Katrina caused to her house in nearby Pass Christian.

Yes, half the roof flew off her 115-year-old house to the rafters with it, and yes, the rain that poured in destroyed furniture, floors and the house of the water pump. All that remains of the family of 32-foot sailboat, a vacuum is a bowline. With a laugh, Mrs. Casey said the boat was renamed Toll.

Stuff est’’stuff,’’said Casey, a social worker and mother of three children who rode the storm at home with nine relatives. ”We are very pleased with the rest of the family, they have lost everything.”

After listening to Ms. Casey describe the damage for 10 minutes at State Farm’s Mobile Easy disaster, Ms. Evans wrote her a $ 500 check for gas, food and other immediate needs. She said Mrs. Casey to order a tin roof to replace the canvas she has put in place, call an antique dealer to evaluate the damage to the old furniture and fight against mold with Clorox. And it Ms. Casey gave a claim number and told him to expect a call for an expert, who would visit the house as soon as he could.

Like thousands of homeowners in the region, Ms. Casey is about to enter a long, cumbersome process to determine what caused the damage and who should pay.

It will not be easy. The volume of insurance claims means that it could take months before police get the money needed to rebuild their homes or move elsewhere.

As of Wednesday, State Farm, the largest residential insurer in the region, had received more than 62000-Hurricane Katrina claims by homeowners in Mississippi and Alabama, and 16000 applications for automobiles.

This problem is compounded by the complexity of the storm-related claims. Hurricanes are a combination of wind and water. Most private owners’ compensation policies for wind damage. But if the damage is the result of flooding, coverage would be available if the owner had separate flood insurance purchased from a program or a private insurer . Many residents who suffered severe hurricane damage did not have flood insurance, so sorting on damages in such cases, be sure to be complicated.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of claims are still continuing as policyholders to return to their homes as communities devastated Pass Christian.

The busiest and most sophisticated processing center in Mississippi is the ease Mobile disaster, a 53-foot trailer parked at Hood Discount Home Center here on Highway 49 South. Inside, a half-dozen employees work on banks of computers to process paperwork and coordinate the flow of water, fuel and food for hurricane victims.

Outside, two tents times that of the trailer are filled with rows of folding chairs and tables. About 15 officers sitting on each side with laptops and wireless Internet connections that make it possible to confirm the terms of a customer’s policy and collect information on damage to homes and cars.

At their tables from 7 am to 7 hours (a curfew is in effect here), claims representatives have heard hundreds of victims recount lives and houses turned upside down.

Diane Sheehan and her sister, Charlotte Manis, arrived with a Sony digital camera and photos they had printed of their damaged roof and chain-link fence. Shaken but cheerful, the sisters joked about 20 pounds of Italian beef that had been bad and their fear of using their Weber cooker because of potential gas leaks.

Others have spoken of the enormous task of rebuilding from scratch. Ms. Evans, 30-year State Farm veteran from Birmingham, Ala., said a client without showed both its portfolio to say his house and everything that went.

The day after Hurricane Katrina struck, Elvis Gates Jr., an officer in neighbouring Long Beach, sat outside his office on East Street railroad in a lawn chair so that some its customers around 1500 could find him.