Released: November 18, 2009

Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet hosted an insurance conference in Houma, yesterday, attended by Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon, Citizens CEO John Wortman, representatives from GeoVera, Imperial Fire and Casualty, HomeWise, ASI Lloyds and Americas insurance companies, as well as several parish government officials. Here they learned of the many steps taken by Terrebonne Parish to make the Parish insurance market more attractive to property insurers to do business in the area.

New and renovated homes in the Parish were showcased as being built in compliance with the new State Uniform Construction Code and having higher levels of storm resistant features. Attendants took a tour of the Parish getting to see multiple examples of buildings constructed or renovated adhering to the new building code.

“ I am pleased to see the progress evidenced in the Houma area of stronger and more weather hardy construction and believe this will be a plus in increasing the insurance market in the Houma region,” said Commissioner Donelon. “I praise Parish President Claudet for making available representatives of his Planning Department and Permitting and Inspection team to demonstrate the improvements made in the Terrebonne area since Hurricanes Rita and Katrina hit our state in 2005. The effectiveness of those improvements was demonstrated last year when Hurricane Gustav made landfall in our state in Terrebonne Parish,” Donelon continued.

The stricter building code passed in the 2007 Regular Legislative Session was developed for the purpose of causing buildings to be more hurricane proof and is beginning to show signs of being effective. More information on the building code and insurance premium discounts may be found on the Department of Insurance web site at www.ldi.state.la.us under the Consumer Publication link in a brochure titled “Residential Property Storm Mitigation Incentives” or by calling the Department of Insurance at 1-800-259-5300.

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