As I write this, the National Hurricane Center has issued an advisory downgrading Hurricane Ida to a Tropical Storm. Good news for businesses along the Gulf Coast as winds have weakened to 65-70 mph and further weakening is expected.

Still, Governor Jindal has declared a State of Emergency for Louisiana and there is plenty of available information for residents of Louisiana at emergency.louisiana.gov. The Louisiana Department of Insurance has many links to resources and information available on its hurricane site as well.

The key to business survival after a weather disaster is pre-planning. Adequate flood insurance is a must if you business is in a flood zone. Conducting a review of existing coverage to make sure your property insurance is sufficient and developing a plan before the storm is critical to good pre-planning.

Today is Election Day in the U.S. and there are a number of great battles going on across the country. But, you cannot be involved unless you vote - so, get out there!

My favorite election watch today (besides Casinos for Ohio) is the New York 23rd Congressional District. There, third-party Conservative Party candidate, Doug Hoffman, after a conservative Republican revolt, is the main candidate running against the Democrat. The original Republican candidate, Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, has come out in support of Democrat Bill Owens and against Hoffman.

That prompted some really virulent attacks on Scozzafava by the talk show folks, including Limbaugh who stated, "we can say that she's guilty of widespread bestiality. She has screwed every RINO in the country." Nice. I also love Doug Hoffman's website where he decries his opponent as a "Nancy Pelosi Democrat who has marshaled ACORN and the labor unions to get-out-the-vote on his behalf."

So, to tie all of this back to business insurance, I am pretty sure that Mr. Hoffman would not support efforts at health insurance reform should he be elected.

A Coastal Risk Symposium, hosted by the Travelers Institute takes place today at the Maritime Center in Charleston, S.C. with the purpose to "bring together business, government and community leaders to identify strategies and solutions to protect and insure the coastal region."

Part of the discussion will focus on the Resilient Coasts Blueprint prepared by the Heinz Center and Ceres. The Blueprint concisely states a proposed strategy to address risks posed by coastal development and the commercial insurance costs associated with such risks. It proposes cost effective and common sense solutions to mitigate risks and losses. For example, the introduction discusses how commercial customers of insurer FM Global experienced 85% less damage from Hurricane Katrina owing to the insurer's hurricane loss and prevention program. The claim is that the insurer's $2.5 million investment in pre-disaster prevention resulted in a $500 million savings in avoided losses. Pretty incredible.

The Plan encompasses adaptable building codes, research, and allowing premiums to reflect real risks to "communicate" the real cost to consumers along with other common sense proposals. If you or your business is among the over 50% of Americans who live and do business in a coastal region, the Blueprint is definitely worth taking a look at.

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) passed in 1993 extended legal rights and protections to employees caring for themselves or family members in times of medical need.

The FMLA can be difficult for both employees and employers to navigate. And, as with many laws, gaps in coverage cause result in situations that are fundamentally unfair or divergent from the purpose of the law. Unfortunately, our men and women serving in the military and their families were not explicitly covered by this pre-911 law.

Most Americans would assume that FMLA benefits would be extended to family members caring for injured servicemembers or that working spouses of servicemembers could attend to family needs during deployments. However, that was not always the case. Prior amendments (2008) to the law addressed some discrepancies, but the Defense Authorization Act for 2010, signed by the President on Wednesday, explicitly extends FMLA benefits to servicemembers and their families in the following situations:

• A next of kin can take up to twenty-six weeks of unpaid leave to care for a seriously injured or ill veteran (as long as the injury manifests within 5 years of discharge).
• Employees will be entitled to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to attend to "exigencies" when a family member is deployed overseas and is applicable to reservists, National Guard and regular active duty members.

Both clarifications are important. First, psychological, neurological and traumatic brain injuries often manifest years after service. Second, the 2008 amendments left a great deal of confusion regarding whether active-duty regular servicemembers and their family were covered in the event of a deployment. The Department of Labor adopted the position that "family members of those in the Regular Armed Forces" were not covered by the FMLA exigency provisions.