When wildfires began breaking out across Texas last year in April, homeowners began contacting their insurance agents about their coverage or in some cases lack of coverage. Agents located near many of the fires were inundated with calls from consumers wanting to know if they had adequate protection.
“Many of the phone calls came from policyholders who said they had never looked at their homeowner policy,” said Annette Hoffman with the William Gammon Insurance Agency in Austin. “These people were rightfully concerned about protecting their property, but they had no idea what coverage they had.”
What sparked the calls were wildfires that consumed four million acres of land and destroyed more than 3,000 homes last year. The worst wildfire in Texas history occurred over Labor Day weekend in Bastrop County where 1,600 homes were destroyed and insured losses reached $360 million.
“As expected, we were getting calls from policyholders who had been forced to evacuate. They were asking, what do we do?” said Mark Lee an Allstate agent in Bastrop.
Lee’s agency is located one mile from what became the state’s costliest wildfire in history. “Our customers go for years without using their policy and when something like this happens, they’re not sure what to do,” Lee said.
Thirty miles away in Austin, Hoffman said she was surprised by those who called and their questions.
“Many homeowners thought their homes should be insured for how they are listed on county tax rolls or market value and not for what the actual cost would be to repair it,” Hoffman said. “Others didn’t know what coverage they had, so it was good they called to gain some knowledge and peace of mind.”
Sonya Edwards is with the Bryan Insurance Agency in Graham that is located 20 miles from Possum Kingdom Lake. Possum Kingdom was the site of two major wildfires and dozens of expensive second homes that were destroyed. Edwards said calls began pouring in as soon as the wildfires began occurring.
“Most of our calls were people wanting to know what their coverage limits were. There were many others who called who had no insurance and were seeking to purchase a policy as quickly as possible,” Edwards said.
Moratoriums were placed on the purchase of new homeowner policies near these wildfires because of the uncertainty of where the fire might spread.
A similar situation occurs along the Texas coast when hurricanes begin forming. A moratorium is placed on the purchase of new windstorm policies as soon as a named storm moves into the Gulf of Mexico.
“We have always encouraged consumers to contact their agents or insurance companies to know what coverage they have and make sure they are adequately covered,” said Mark Hanna, a spokesman for the Insurance Council of Texas. “While it is unfortunate that is has to be a catastrophic situation for consumers to feel the need to call in to check on their policy coverage, we congratulate them for making the call and becoming an educated policyholder.”
Source: The Insurance Council of Texas
Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Texas Agencies Wildfire Homeowners
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