Katrina's long reach

This New York Times story about insurers non-renewing 3 million homeowners policies in the Eastern U.S. is not news to the kind of people who read this blog, but it's a good, well-written story nonetheless, and worth a look. An excerpt:Amy Bach, executive director of United Policyholders, a California-based consumer advocacy group, has watched the situation in the East with both professional and personal interest, since the policy on her parents' Long Island home was recently canceled. Crisis or not, she said, the pattern is familiar. ''Wide-scale nonrenewal has been the knee-jerk reaction of the big insurance companies after every major disaster: hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires,'' she said. Florida set the pattern for states in picking up the risk shed by major carriers. Its state-crea