This decision was made on behalf of the private insurers after continually high and widespread flood losses.

While thousands of homes and commercial buildings had to be rebuilt after Andrew, the main flood loss is likely to be crops.

Throughout the county, roughly $25,000 was sustained in flood losses.

Private insurance is expected to make up only a small part of the flood losses, because private insurance companies do not insure against floods.

It is a good idea to attach written proof, like pictures or receipts, to the back of the tax return listing the flood loss.

Say a taxpayer with $50,000 of adjusted gross income has $20,000 in flood losses and gets $10,000 from her insurance company.

Nearly a dozen insurance companies had sought dismissal of the lawsuits over flood losses.

Part of their flood losses, they concede, will be that many of their tenants have vanished.

Their longstanding practice of not covering flood losses resulted years ago in a federal program being specifically created to provide such coverage.

At least half of the homes and businesses destroyed were not insured against flood losses.