Life and health insurance companies and organizations are just starting to come to terms with the magnitude of the Hurricane Katrina relief and reconstruction effort.
At press time, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was estimating that Katrina "most likely" had killed thousands of people in New Orleans alone.
Katrina is unlikely to have a noticeable effect on national mortality statistics even if it did cause thousands of deaths. But the storm could cause problems for some of the small and midsize life insurers that have focused on the Gulf Coast market.
"If there were significant loss of life, that would be extremely difficult on these small companies," says Scott Cipinko, interim executive director at the Life Insurers Council, Atlanta.
Meanwhile, the telephone lines and Web site of Pan-American Life Insurance Company, New Orleans, were down.
The American Council of Life Insurers, Washington, says it will be working to help state officials on life insurance issues, and America's Health Insurance Plans, Washington, says it will be working with relief agencies to make sure that evacuees have access to uninterrupted health benefits.
