NU Online News Service, May 10, 3:46 p.m. EDT

A property and casualty industry official says he hopes the recent heavy Mississippi River flooding will reinforce the need for prompt congressional action for a long-term National Flood Insurance Program extension.

Speaking to whether the heavy floods in the Mississippi River delta may add to the flood program deficit and reduce the incentive for Congress to act promptly on an extension, Don Griffin, vice president of personal lines for the Property Casualty Insurers of America (PCI), says, "I don't know what this will mean in the Senate, which has been dragging its feet."

But he says he sees no signs that the current claims, even if the worst since 2005, will add to the current $17.8 billion deficit the NFIP is running. "I'm not sure [the floods] can't be covered by the premiums [the NFIP is] already collecting," he says.

Rather than cast doubt on an extension, Griffin says he hopes the floods "will reinforce the need for Congress to act promptly to pass this long-term extension of the program."

Griffin's comments come amid a scheduled markup in the House Thursday of legislation reauthorizing the NFIP for five years. The bill is H.R. 1309, the Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2011.

Griffin notes that the bill is needed to prevent more short-term extensions. Ten short-term extensions have been passed since Sept. 30, 2008.

The current NFIP reauthorization expires Sept. 30, the end of the current government fiscal year.

Regarding the recent floods, Griffin says, "We are seeing an awful lot of activity and a lot of flooding in recent days."

But, he says, "Until we can gain access to all of the data once the flooding stops and have a better picture of all the damage, we won't have a comprehensive idea of the extent of this flooding."

He says he doubts the flooding will be anywhere near the magnitude of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma, which devastated the lower Mississippi and the Gulf coast in 2005.

"I don't think it will get to that magnitude of losses, but it is more flooding than we have seen in recent times," he says.