Rain storms called catastrophes; insurance coverage no umbrella.

The storms that pelted the Southland in the past few weeks have caused millions of dollars in damage and sparked thousands of insurance claims, but much of the cost of repairing that damage will not reimbursed.

Property Claims Services, the nationally recognized insurance authority on

The storms which occurred Jan. 5 though Jan. 8 were designated as the first catastrophe and the storms which hit California and Arizona Jan. 12 through Jan. 18 were designated as a second one, Thornton said.

An event is determined to be an official catastrophe if damage claims exceed $5 million and there are 500 to 1,000 claims, Thornton said. After the firm labels an event as a catastrophe, insurers are then entitled to apply for catastrophe re-insurance, he said.

Typically, there are 35 to 40 national catastrophes a year, Thornton said. Preliminary estimates on how much of the storm damage's costs are covered by insurance are not expected to be available until the end of January.

The state Department of Emergency Services estimated last week that the storms had caused at least $60 million worth of damage statewide, said spokeswoman Cindy Kawano. She noted that figure was a "rough" estimate and could change.

State Farm estimated it will receive 3,000 claims from the storms, twice as many as resulted from last April's Los Angeles riot, said spokesman Robert Blodgett. The insurer has a 20 percent share of the California property-casualty market.

However, because storm damage claims are typically small, State Farm will probably pay out several million dollars, nothing near the $42 million it paid out on riot losses, Blodgett said.

Many of the storm damage claims were from Los Angeles County, but San Diego, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties were the hardest hit, Blodgett said.

Farmers Insurance, which has a 13 percent share of the state's market, declared that there were three separate "catastrophes" in the last month, said spokesman Jeff Beyer. The company estimates it will pay out at least $1 million and possibly several million dollars in claims for each of the three catastrophes, he said.

Mike Harris, spokesman for the California Fair Access to Insurance Requirement plan, the state insurance pool for people who can not obtain private insurance, said that as of Jan. 20, there were 150 claims reported with an estimated loss of $330,000.

The estimate is preliminary and based on the fact that historically the FAIR plan has paid out about $2,200 a claim for storm damage, Harris said. "Claims are still coming in," he added.

Much of the damage caused by the storms will not be covered by insurance, said Diana Herrera, western regional manager for the National Flood Insurance Program.

The program was set up by Congress in 1968 because private insurers would not cover flood damage, she said. Homeowners can buy coverage directly through the program or through a private insurer, Herrera said.

There are more than 200,000 flood policies in effect in California, Herrera said. But she noted that many structures in flood zones throughout the state are not covered, because people fail to buy flood insurance.

Herrera said she believes that many California homes and businesses are uninsured because the drought of the last several years has given people a false sense of security about the likelihood of a flood.

Flood damage is not the only thing not covered by typical homeowners policies, said Elena Stern, spokeswoman for the state Department of Insurance.

In the last few weeks the department has received numerous inquiries on whether different types of storm damage are covered or not, she said. "On a homeowners policy, there is no standard policy. One house may be covered for mud damage and then right next door the neighbor is not," Stern said.

Under a State Farm policy, flood, landslide and other storm-related damage is not covered, Blodgett said. State Farm is asking policyholders who suffered storm damage to call to find out if the damage is covered, he said.

Even if damage repair is not reimbursable, policyholders are entitled to as much as $2,000 to pay for hotel lodging if their homes were rendered uninhabitable, Blodgett said.

Under the FAIR plan, policyholders would be covered for rain damage if the wind ripped off the roof of a home and water came in, Harris said. However, the FAIR plan would not pay a claim "where the rain came in because someone left a roof or window open," Harris said.