The Wall Street Journal

Those years "were wake-up calls for a lot of businesses and people throughout the coastal area," said Robert W. O'Brien, leader of the catastrophe response team at Marsh & McLennan's Marsh Inc. insurance brokerage. In 2004 in particular when four major hurricanes crisscrossed Florida, building supplies became scarce and "people were scrambling," he said...

But even careful preparation isn't a guarantee against damage, and every storm is a learning experience. "Katrina brought a lot of that to light when it cut a 100-mile swath of destruction," said Ken Giambagno, global leader of Marsh Risk Consulting's Forensic Accounting and Claims Services Practice..."You may feel well-protected, but when a storm like Katrina comes through," the unexpected can happen.