Special Section: Insurance Crisis

Blue Tape For Blue Tarps

Posted Jan 16, 2007 by Baird Helgeson

Updated Jan 16, 2007 at 02:05 PM

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We have arrived in Tallahassee.

Bus riders spent the last few minutes before we arrived putting on blue armbands to signify all the homeowners who still haven’t settled insurance claims and have blue tarps on their roofs. The armbands are made of blue painting tape and for awhile they streamed down from the overhead compartments on the bus as people took a piece from the roll and then sent it along to the row ahead.

As the bus neared the Capitol, the members of the groups were stunned to see perhaps a dozen journalists from various television stations and newspapers.

“I think we got their attention,” said Ginny Stevans, president of Having Affordable Coverage.