ST. LOUIS — A year after the tornado, the question facing north St. Louis is not whether the system failed its residents. The question is whether the system was ever designed to protect them.
We asked Missouri for its insurance records. The state initially said no.
That was in April. At the outset, we had filed six separate requests under the Missouri Sunshine Law — the state’s public records law — asking for data on homeowners insurance coverage in North St. Louis, records of any investigations into insurance company conduct after the tornado, and correspondence between the department and elected officials. We eventually filed a seventh records request.
The department’s lawyers came back with legal citations to parry off every one. Their initial denials cited every roadblock in the book: Trade secrets. Market confidentiality. Pending investigations. For good measure, before releasing anything to us, they told us they reserved the right to notify the insurance companies we were asking about, giving the industry a potential window to weigh in before the public saw a single page…