The Supreme Court has refused to help Hurricane Katrina victims who want insurance companies to pay for flood damages.

The justices rejected victims' appeals from Xavier University and 68 other individuals and businesses that would allow lawsuits against insurers to go forward.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals earlier had ruled that policies do not cover damage from floods, even those that resulted from man-made failures like the collapsed levees in new orleans.

But other cases working their way through state courts have so far reached differing conclusions.

A Louisiana appeals court has said that language excluding water damage from some insurance policies was ambiguous. The Louisiana Supreme Court will hear arguments in that case on Feb. 26.

Source: The Associated Press