War Damage Insurance Corporation

If you’re getting junk mail from these guys, you might be living in the wrong neighborhood.

Actually, you may be living in the wrong time. The War Damage Insurance Corp. was set up by the government during World War II to fill gaps in traditional insurance coverage, since, at the time, there was a higher-than-usual chance that parts of the U.S. could get shelled by a Japanese submarine.

Most insurance companies have certain things they don’t cover, usually because the types of events left outside the policy cause tons of damage and are hard to predict. Hurricanes and terrorist attacks are high-profile examples. Same with war.

The War Damage Insurance Corp. was a government-sponsored program to help mitigate the risk that, well...bombs would start destroying private property during The Big One.