When Florida suffered through its four-pronged hurricane siege last year, the insurance industry responded quickly, but not quick enough, according to some critics. Even the infusion of thousands of adjusters from outside the State of Florida, bolstered by licensing relaxation from the state's DOI, failed to totally squelch criticism from multiple fronts.

Now we have the Katrina catastrophe. There's nothing additionally enlightening that can be said here, at this time. We all have access to the myriad news outlets, so all parties know what they're in for in the months and years ahead. But do we really? On Sept. 15th, Ray Nagin, mayor of New Orleans, announced that certain sections of the city would be reopened to inhabitants beginning the next day, and that overall, the city would rebound and rise to even greater heights than pre-Katrina. And certainly, we keep all the victims in our prayers.

That being said, the Insurance Information Institute again has raised its insured loss prediction, which now hovers around approximately $80 billion for P & C; but that doesn't count ancillary coverages such as BI, tourism losses, income losses, and the cost of repairs to roads, bridges, levees, and sewer systems. Then, too, we have to tally life insurance coverages for those who didn't survive Katrina's wrath. All in all, the financial toll for those concerned will be in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Is there light at the end of this long, dark tunnel? Eventually, but we won't see clear emotional sunshine on the Gulf Coast for a painfully long time.