Both rates, demand for terrorism insurance still unclear.(Chicago Tribune)

Byline: Virginia Groark

CHICAGO _ With a deadline less than two weeks away, many insurance firms have yet to inform owners of trophy properties how much they will be charged for coverage guarding against terror attacks.

Insurance companies are required by a new federal law to provide terrorism coverage to commercial clients. In many cases, that coverage was dropped after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

On Feb. 24, insurance firms, which are still struggling with estimates, must notify building owners how much they intend to charge. In turn, property owners are trying to determine what coverage _ if any _ they should buy.

It was a "state of chaos," said Rich Chicotel, chief financial officer for Shorenstein Co., which owns Chicago's Hancock Tower. Now it's "a state of pandemonium."

That wasn't the intention.

The idea behind the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, which President Bush signed in November, was to ease insurance market concerns by making the federal government a temporary backstop and requiring it to help pay for catastrophic terrorism …