I've seen my share of disasters — eithercovering them as news or experiencing them as an insured. My firstmemorable storm was Hurricane Hugo, where the National Guard wasstationed along the beachfront in Myrtle Beach, S.C., checking theidentification of homeowners who were trying to get into the areato see if their homes were still standing. I remember climbing anextension ladder up to the first floor of my parents' beachfronthome to see what was salvageable. Most of our contents wereundamaged, but the home on the lot next to ours had been washedaway and not even a stick of wood remained to indicate a house hadonce stood there.

Property damage can be caused by many different perils.Tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires, fires and flooding can all causedevastation with little or no warning. It is how insurers andvendors respond in the wake of those calamities that provides theopportunity for policyholders to really see how a company can shine(or doesn't).

During a catastrophe, there is extensive damage, but determiningwhat may or may not be covered is an entirely different story.Insureds rarely understand what their insurance covers and may nothave the policies or limits in place required to make them whole,leading to unrealistic expectations when a loss occurs.

Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy were excellent examples ofcatastrophes that highlighted issues not just with homeowners, butinsurers, vendors and local, state and federal government. FEMA wasvilified for its lack of immediate response after Katrina and nowother questions regarding insurance payments following Sandy havearisen.

Each catastrophe provides an opportunity to learn and improvefor the next one. This month's cover story looks at a host ofproblems arising after Hurricane Sandy decimated much of the EastCoast in 2012. Three years later, there are still homeowners whoare trying to rebuild and collect the money from their NationalFlood Insurance Program policies. It has been a challenging processfor all involved.

If one was to only listen to the soundbites and talking headssharing their opinions, then it would be easy to miss what notedcommentator Paul Harvey used to say was “the rest of the story.”Many individuals did things well or with good intentions, otherswere woefully unprepared, and still others used the situation totheir advantage. All of these factors combined to create a perfectstorm with some hard lessons. The question is — are we smart enoughto learn from them?