Thursday, August 9th, 2001 — The federal government is working to reimburse insurance companies for all claims they paid to their customers for damage caused by the Cerro Grande fires in New Mexico last year. Payments are expected to begin in January 2002.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) told insurers at a meeting in Santa Fe, N.M., that FEMA has closed 12,000 claims by individual fire victims and obligated $200 million of the $455 million Congress appropriated for that purpose. Attending the meeting were representatives of several insurance companies and the National Association of Independent Insurers (NAII), which worked closely with U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) and others in Congress to enact the law to compensate the fire victims.