Washington–The coalition formed to promote a national catastrophe insurance program held an event here today to present lawmakers and survey findings that it hopes will help make its drive successful.

ProtectingAmerica.org, which has the backing of Allstate and State Farm, unveiled a survey it said had found that nearly half of Americans believe that they will be affected by a natural catastrophe, and more than two thirds of Americans believe the government is not prepared for such an emergency.

“The catastrophes of the last hurricane season were a wake-up call to America, and this survey is a wake-up call to Congress,” said Federal Emergency Management Agency director James Lee Witt, a co-chairman of the group.

“By a margin of nearly three to one, Americans are saying 'we're not prepared and we want Congress to do something about it,'” added Mr. Witt.

ProtectingAmerica is supporting legislation authored by Reps. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Fla., and Clay Shaw, R-Fla., that would promote the creation of state catastrophe funds as well as a federal pool to serve as a reinsurance backstop for those states that have created their own catastrophe fund.

Rep. Brown-Waite said that the state funds would be expected to cover the losses of an event occurring once in 50 years with the federal pool covering anything beyond that up to a once -in-500-years event.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle facing the proposal, Rep. Brown-Waite acknowledged, is convincing members of Congress from states that have not been hit in recent years that the legislation is not a subsidy for those in danger areas at the expense of Middle America.

“It's not about Florida. It's not about New York or all the states in between,” she said. “It's about being prepared for a major emergency.”

At the beginning of 2004, Rep. Brown-Waite said, the total policy surplus in the insurance industry was roughly $370 billion, which would provide for claims made not only for homeowners' insurance, but also for liability claims or asbestos claims among others.

To highlight the risk for insurers, she noted that if the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 or even the earthquake of 1964 were to occur today, total damages would equal $400 billion or more.

ProtectingAmerica Co-chairman former Department of Homeland Security deputy secretary coast Guard Admiral James Loy said, “The insurance system is not designed to watch multiple events like that happen and deal with them constructively.”

Adm. Loy said an added feature of creating state pools is that they promote proactive steps such as the enactment and enforcement of building codes.

Mr. Witt called the creation of a national catastrophe fund, “absolutely critical,” adding that, “if we don't start today and build a catastrophe fund in each state as well as at the national level, how are we going to break the chain of destruction and recovery?”

ProtectingAmerica says its membership includes numerous municipal groups, first responder organizations and insurance companies and agencies.

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