Louisiana is facing an epic legal battle to determine who should pay to repair damaged properties, with insurance experts predicting that tens of thousands of homeowners will discover their insurance claims will not cover the cost of rebuilding their homes.

Jim Brown, Louisiana's insurance commissioner from 1992 until 2004, estimates that only a quarter of houses in the poorest areas affected by Hurricane Katrina had flood insurance. Standard insurance policies, carried by almost all homeowners, cover damage caused by storms but not floods.