... UNDERWRITERS POINT TO THEIR COMPUTER MODELS TO TEE OFF ON SANDY DAMAGE.
Computer models. Underwriters are now using computer models to justify talk of higher Premiums to come in the Northeast after all the damage that Sandy caused, if property or flood insurance are going to be made available at all in the Northeast.
In virtually the same language across the Internet, all sorts of sites are publishing the observation that after Sandy, underwriters and the makers of Catastrophe computer models all "will now treat the Northeast more like the Southeast when it comes to property pricing and the availability of flood insurance." A representative sample comes from Amy O'Connor, "After Sandy, Underwriters, CAT Models View Northeast Like Southeast: NAPCO" (Insurance Journal Online, posted May 6, 2013).
There is definitely something to it, in a sense. There is a recognition in that repeated observation that climate change is not only real right now, it is also so much the reality of our future that even the Northeast can expect previously unusually destructive weather and coming at previously unusual times of the year, as Sandy did.
However, the idea that opinions about what exactly the future will bring, fed by underwriters into computer programs which exist for the purpose of supporting premium rate increases which are going to be requested from State Insurance Commissioners, is suspect, notwithstanding.
This shameful exercise with computer programs force-fed by underwriters is not good faith nor fair dealing.
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