Insurers Abandon Long Island After Superstorm, N.Y. Senator Schumer Says

Allstate Corp. is among insurers retreating from the Long Island, New York, homeowners market after superstorm Sandy and should be compelled to offer coverage there, New York Senator Charles Schumer said.

Liberty Mutual Holding Co. and Bloomington, Illinois-based State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. are also scaling back, forcing residents to pay more for homeowners’ policies, Schumer, a Democrat, said in a statement Monday. He called on the Federal Emergency Management Agency to penalize home insurers if they abandon the region.

Representatives of all three insurers said they remain committed to the state. “Allstate is currently writing homeowners policies on Long Island and throughout New York,” Kyle Donash, a spokesman at the Northbrook, Illinois-based company, said in an e-mail. Allstate is the largest publicly traded U.S. home and auto insurer.

Sandy, the biggest Atlantic storm in history, struck the U.S. East Coast on Oct. 29, killing more than 100 people and destroying homes and businesses. Its $18.8 billion in claims made it the third-costliest U.S. storm on record, the Insurance Information Institute has said.

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