THE SETTING was New York, and the date was 9/11. But the disaster on everyone's mind this time was Hurricane Katrina, not the attack on the World Trade Center. As members of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America gathered last month in the Big Apple for their annual convention, there were many topics on the agenda, including the extension of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, agent compensation in the Spitzer era, insurance regulation and progress on the association's “Trusted Choice” branding initiative. But uppermost in everyone's mind was the disaster that had befallen the Gulf Coast just two weeks earlier.

Katrina likely will go down as the costliest disaster ever to hit the insurance industry, with insured losses last month estimated as high as $60 billion, out of more than $200 billion in total damages. The scope of the human tragedy was incalculably higher, with the death toll climbing past 1,100 at the time this was written, and with hundreds of thousands of people left with next to nothing and scattered in shelters about the country.

At a time when many had fallen into despair, William G. Stiglitz III, who was sworn in as the association's new president at the convention, urged insurers to rise to the occasion with their best possible effort. “The recent events in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama present an incredible opportunity for our industry and our members to show the world that insurance can respond in a fair and rapid manner,” said Stiglitz, who also is an account executive with Hyland, Block & Hyland Inc., in Louisville, Ky.