NEW ORLEANS — Once a proud businessman, William Dwyer sits in a parking lot these days, begging his insurer for money.

The 57-year-old retiree said he was quick to file claims after Hurricane Katrina severely damaged his home in suburban Slidell, La. An adjuster inspected the property about four weeks after the storm, but after four more weeks, he's heard nothing about compensation aside from a cash advance for living expenses.

"I had to beg and beg and beg," he said as he waited outside a mobile insurance company unit set up in a shopping center parking lot. "Each time I call, they refuse to say anything. They don't return our phone calls. It's been horrible. We lost everything we had."

After evacuating around the country, survivors of Katrina and Hurricane Rita are on a new journey to prove their losses so they can rebuild tattered lives. Until those claims are resolved, hundreds of thousands of lives and the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast are on hold.

Charles and Gloria Larche, who are in their 60s, thought they were set after paying off their mortgage earlier this year. But they said their insurer claimed they did not have coverage on their east New Orleans home as part of a policy that included a separate rental property; the Larches are disputing the claim.

"We're in limbo. We don't know what's going to be decided," said Gloria Larche, a retired school teacher. "We lost the whole bottom half of our house," she said. "It's very frustrating. When you call, you get nothing but the runaround."

Total insured losses caused by Katrina in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama are about $34 billion, according to the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, which has more than 1,000 members.

The Louisiana Department of Insurance has received 1,367 consumer complaints since the storm concerning adjusters not showing up, an inability to reach insurers and insufficient settlements.

"What I keep telling everybody is you have to remind yourself you're dealing with the largest natural disaster in American history," said Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Robert Wooley. "It's not going to be pretty, and it's not going to be fast."

Many survivors are trying to navigate the claims process without phone service, hot water and other basics.

State insurance departments around the country offered to send help to respond to the complaints, but Wooley said that until recently, it was hard to find hotel rooms for them. Adjusters had the same problem, commuting up to three hours to assess homes, he said.

Some homes only recently became accessible. Facing a manpower shortage, some insurers are relying on independent adjusters with limited training.

"There are apparently some fairly rude independents out there," said Wooley, who expects even more serious complaints to arise as settlement checks arrive.

Insurers say they're processing claims as fast as they can, but evaluating the damage to each home is time-consuming.

"We have people working 15 to 16 hours per day, seven days per week," said George Forbes, unit manager with St. Paul Travelers Cos. Inc., who dealt with Dwyer's claim last week.

Travelers, which lost more than $1 billion from the two hurricanes, has 1,000 claim specialists working throughout the South, said Jennifer Wislocki, a spokeswoman. She said the cases vary too much to say when they'll be resolved.

Allstate Insurance Co., which expects to handle more than 300,000 claims from the hurricanes, said every customer who has filed a claim has been contacted by an adjuster, but not all customers will require a visit to settle their claims. The volume of claims has been challenging, but company officials said a national catastrophe team with mobile response units is able to handle the claims.