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Hurricane Ida victims wait for insurance money, nearly five years after storm
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BATON ROUGE - In August 2021, Hurricane Ida hit southeastern Louisiana. A few months later, insurance companies began leaving the state after a few bad storms created a tough market. One of them was Lighthouse Excalibur.
For nearly five years, Lashawn and Darius Johnson have been living a nightmare in what they once considered their first home. As they describe it, Hurricane Ida took everything from them, and their insurance company, Lighthouse Excalibur, left them to pick up the pieces, all while they were still making mortgage payments.
"It was beautiful, too, when we first moved here," said Lashawn Johnson.
During Hurricane Ida, a tree fell onto their roof. It broke a skylight and poked holes into their Spanish tile roof. Water started pouring into the house. It took several months for Lighthouse Excalibur to pay for a new roof, but a bigger problem was brewing in the ceilings, walls and floors.
"I reached out several times, telling them I see mold, I don't know what to do," said Lashawn Johnson.
The Johnsons hired a mold remediation company to gut their home and treat the mold. Then, in April 2022, Lighthouse Excalibur went insolvent. The Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association is an insurance safety net for consumers whose insurer becomes insolvent. That safety net didn't quite catch the Johnsons, and their case has dragged on.
"I just gave up," said Lashawn Johnson.
After two years of sleeping on air mattresses with plastic ceilings, it was their daughter who picked up a tool and started fixing the house herself.
"One day, we were lying down, and we heard banging. We went upstairs, and our little 10-year-old went, 'I want my room back,'" said Lashawn Johnson.
Restoring the house became a family project. Every extra dollar they had went into fixing up their home. Unfortunately, they didn't use insulation. In the winter, the second story is freezing, and in the summer, it's sweltering. The HVAC can't keep up and went out. They had to spend $15,000 to replace the system. Even now, their electricity bills are outrageous every month because of the lack of insulation.
"Now everything has got to get torn back down," said Lashawn Johnson.
They hired Montiel Hodge to work on their case. Mark Montiel says their team is doing everything they can to fight for the Johnsons and continues to work through cases involving LIGA.
"When you're fighting with LIGA, you're fighting with one hand tied behind your back, sometimes two," said Mark Montiel.
The Johnsons have outstanding bills with various companies that have worked on their home. Their bills exceed $100,000, which doesn't count the work that still has to be completed at their house. Many of the light fixtures in their home don't work because of water damage.
LIGA cannot comment on pending litigation, but Executive Director John Wells did provide the following statement:
“After several property insurance companies became insolvent between 2021 and 2023, LIGA assumed the payment of approximately 159,000 premium refunds and 42,000 pending homeowner claims, paying $140 million and $740 million, respectively. LIGA has resolved 98% of the homeowner claims and is actively working with the policyholders’ attorneys as well as with mediators and the courts to resolve the remaining 700 claims.”
The Johnsons have set up a GoFundMe to assist with their growing expenses.
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