The Mississippi insurance commissioner is going it alone infiling a lawsuit aimed at delaying the onset of flood insurancerate hikes after the state attorney general declined to representhim.

The premiums are scheduled to go into effect Oct. 1.

"We are moving ahead with our suit plans," commissioner MikeChaney said last night after disclosing that AG Jim Hood haddeclined Tuesday to file the suit on Chaney's behalf.

In the letter, Chaney disclosed that the suit will be filedagainst the U.S. Government and the Federal Emergency ManagementAgency, which administers the National Flood Insurance Program.

Chaney said in the letter that insurance premiums imposed underthe Biggert-Waters Act of 2012 "significantly changes theNFIP."

Hood could not immediately be reached for comment. Theletter from Chaney to Hood was sent late yesterday.

The letter also asks Hood to approve Chaney's decision to hire aprivate law firm to represent the insurance commissioner, anelected office in Mississippi, in the lawsuit.

He plans to file a lawsuit seeking an injunction against therate hikes before bills start going sent out Oct. 1.

Residents of states from Texas to Vermont are protesting theincreases. A group representing New Orleans businesses says someNFIP customers could see rate hikes of up to 3,000 percent.

That's because some rates have been grandfathered since floodmaps setting rates based on risks were initiated under the NFIPstarting in 1969. Louisiana officials said that, currently, 49percent of flood insurance rates levied in the state aresubsidized.

Jackson County, Miss., supervisors said Monday that the ratehikes imposed through the 2012 law will range from hundreds ofdollars a year to thousands of dollars a year on homes inflood-prone areas and could cause people in middle- to low-incomebrackets to walk away from their homes.