That wacky Icelandic volcano ash is not only mucking up Europes skies and screwed up travel plans worldwide, it’s also clouding the morals of travel insurance policy issuers, which are refusing to cover new claims brought on by the disaster, the Wall Street Journal reports.

From the WSJ blog post:

As of April 13, travel insurance policies generally stopped covering the disruption that resulted from the ash cloud from Iceland.

It’s called the theory of the burning house. If your house is ablaze, you can’t go out and quickly buy homeowners coverage. In travel, as soon as a storm or event is known, you can buy all the insurance you want but it won’t cover those “known’’ events. Once a hurricane is named, most policies won’t cover it if the insurance was sold after the moment the storm was identified.

“In general, travel insurance policies don’t cover events related to natural disasters that are in progress or that have just happened. Even an approaching hurricane wouldn’t be covered if officials have already given it a name,” said Chris Harvey, chief executive of Squaremouth.com, a travel insurance comparison site.

Under what circumstances do you buy travel insurance?

Travel Insurance Warning: No Ash Coverage Anymore [Wall Street Journal]

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.