The senator on Thursday said that his bill, called the COASTAL Act - Consumer Option for an Alternative System to Allocate Losses, would establish a formula to determine how much property loss is caused by wind and how much by water in hurricanes. The formula would apply only in cases where structures are left as slabs.
Wicker said information about a hurricane would be gathered from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, academic institutions and private entities. A formula would be used for each destroyed structure, taking into account the construction characteristics of the building.
"I am convinced that a formula could be established that allocates responsibility from property to property," Wicker said in a conference call from Washington.
A formula could bring "more certainty to the marketplace" and could help persuade insurers to do business in coastal zones, he said.