By now you've seen the video and pictures of Baltimore,Maryland, on fire in the wake of the death of 25-year-old FreddieGray who died from a severe spinal cord injury while in the custodyof Baltimore City police. The looting, attacks on police, and thesenseless vandalism have been graphically captured and splashedacross the Internet and network television for days. I wrote aboutthe riots in Ferguson, but that was another city in another stateand it was easy to just keep to the facts. I've called Baltimore myhometown all my life and even though I've always lived just outsideof the city, when someone asks where I'm from, I tell themBaltimore.

I worked in the city for many years and even helped a formerMayor's office create a video promoting Baltimore's many uniqueneighborhoods. I have friends who live in the city and are workinghard to rebuild some of the economically depressed areas becausethis city has a lot of potential.

The pictures on TV only capture a microcosm of the damage thathas been done to the city and the surrounding suburbs. From aninsurance perspective, based on where they're located in the cityand the fact the majority of the restaurants, bars and shopsaffected are what you'd call ''mom and pop” businesses, the chancesof them having business interruption insurance or even fullcommercial general liability policies to make them whole areremote. The same is true for homeowners whose homes have beendamaged by rioters and looters. Many do not have more than minimalhomeowners insurance if any to cover losses they might incur. Theeffects to them and the neighborhoods in which they are locatedwill be devastating.