Lack of Electricity, Gasoline Slows Hurricane Wilma Recovery Efforts

Four days after Hurricane Wilma crossed southwest Florida and tore into South Florida, insurance agents in Naples and Miami told Insurance Journal they had not encountered the onslaught of claims they expected, but affirmed that since a large percentage of the hurricane-stricken area was without electricity, they expect more claims as policyholders’ power returned. Agents in both Dade and Broward counties were without electricity, had problems receiving calls, and Florida Power and Light said many would be without power until Nov. 21.

Cleanup begun in Naples

Margaret M. Weems, president of Weems Insurance of Naples Inc. told Insurance Journal she received her 78th claim Oct. 27, but said there wasn’t any way to tell how many policyholders had electricity or telephone service.

On Oct. 27 most of Naples looked and felt like a war-zone. On I-75 south a few miles outside Naples flashing road signs directed emergency volunteers to get off at the next exit, where they would find a staging area, be logged in, their capabilities assessed and assigned to various teams according to where they would be most useful.

Every other radio commercial was an announcement from a national insurance company proclaiming they were standing by to receive calls about claims, instructing listeners to take photographs of their damages and save all receipts to permit the claims to be handled efficiently.

Department of Financial Services representatives manned a trailer in a local shopping center, as did Nationwide and several aid organizations. Hurricane victims lined up to receive water, ice and ready to eat meals.

Across Naples, downed trees lined the sides of streets; electric company bucket trucks were everywhere, repairing lines and attempting to restore power; policemen were at just about every intersection directing traffic, due to powerless or destroyed traffic signals; but everywhere, cleanup efforts are underway and attempts are being made to put the city back together again.

Weems began to see the effects of Hurricane Wilma on Oct. 24 at about 2 a.m. When daylight came the city was in the eye of the hurricane and she said her neighborhood didn’t look too bad.

“Looking around I saw some trees had been blown down, some screen rooms and pool cages had collapsed, but overall the damage wasn’t as bad as it might have been,” Weems explained. She said as the eye passed by more wind and rain came and things didn’t calm back down until 4 p.m.

In 1969, when Hurricane Camille hit Mississippi, Weems saw the damage in Biloxi. After living in Mississippi for several years, she feels sorry about what residents are going through now after Hurricane Katrina.

Weems said Hurricane Wilma caused localized flooding in her neighborhood, but most damage was caused by wind. Her house is on a cul-de-sac and she said one side of it was flooded on Monday but that the water soon went down.

Weems has been in the insurance business for 35 years, she worked for agencies in Memphis, Tenn., and Orlando, Fla., before coming to Naples where she also worked for a local agency for several years prior to opening Weems Insurance of Naples.

“It’s strange how hurricanes can cause intermittent damage,” Weems pointed out. “Drive through any neighborhood and you will see some houses with damages, and others on the same street with absolutely none.”

While I waited for Weems to take one of the numerous calls from policyholders asking about how to file claims, the owner of the office building came to ask if I was the insurance claims adjuster. Part of the roof of the building the agency is housed in was damaged by Hurricane Wilma and an adjuster was due there to take a look at it.

Weems explained patiently to the policyholder on the phone that the damages being described were subject to a 2 percent hurricane deductible and that the best way to handle the problem was to determine how much damage there was, estimate how much it would cost to make the repairs, and if it looked like the cost would go over the deductible, to call back and an adjuster would be scheduled to come out.

Weems said that so far, her policyholders had been very lucky with adjusters. Most had been able to come out within a day or so of the call and she said that at present there were several adjusters in town to call.

“Most of the people calling seem very understanding about their claim and when I explain there’s a 2 percent deductible, take it in stride,” Weems said. She said several customers were very demanding, saying they wanted immediate action, even one homeowner who even wanted her to pay their airfare to Naples from up north to check on their damage.

Driving through the old section of Naples and toward the beach there were hundreds of downed trees, many of which lay across house roofs. Some roofs had blue tarps covering what were obviously leaks, but there were very few houses that had lost their roofs entirely or been blown down.

Weems she saw several instances in which a roof had blown off a building and landed on a house next door. Overall, however, she said she thought Naples came through the storm well.

Crossing the state

As Wilma roared across Florida from the west coast, it turned to the northeast, missing central Dade County, swinging slightly north through and right across Broward County hitting Fort Lauderdale and its surrounding suburbs straight on with sustained winds of 125 mph.

Most major damage was done to Broward County apartment buildings and condominiums. When Wilma hit that area many condos and apartment buildings’ shingles and some roofs blew off, causing internal water damage and leaving residents homeless.

Not having electricity was a major problem, homeowners did not have lights and were unable to cook or run water. Some retirees said they had purchased battery-operated portable televisions during the 2004 hurricanes and able to watch local news broadcasts. The roads were a nightmare, traffic was jammed and dangerous because signal lights on a large percentage of streets were inoperable, cars and trucks approaching intersections had to treat them as if they were four-way stops.

Sunday afternoon as I drove north from Broward County north toward Orlando, thousands of cars and trucks, some with plastic gasoline containers strapped to their roof, jammed the Florida Turnpike’s southbound lane crawling along at a top speed of about 20 mph, toward their homes in South Florida, promising to make the situation worse.

As I toured South Florida Friday and Saturday, the entire area was at a standstill and I had to wonder what effect the addition of thousands of returning residents would have on the area, and whether they had any idea what they would face.

South Florida, including both Miami and Fort Lauderdale, was my family’s home for more than 30 years, yet the areas I returned to were totally unrecognizable. My shock at returning had nothing to do with new buildings or streets; it had to do with the mass destruction and the lack of facilities.

Not having electricity was a major problem for homeowners, who did not have lights at night and were in many cases unable to cook or run water. Traffic on the roads was also a nightmare, because signal lights on a large percentage of streets were inoperable, cars and trucks approaching intersections had to treat them as if they were four-way stops.

Coral’s claims approach 1K

All the insurance agents and even Coral Insurance in Hollywood, Fla., told Insurance Journal a majority of the claims they were receiving involved fences that had been blown down, loose or missing roof shingles and tiles, and other superficial damage. Many apartment buildings and condominiums received major damage in which their roofs blew off, causing internal water damage and leaving their residents homeless.

It was even reported that the building in which Coral Insurance has offices at Presidential Circle had experienced major damage, but when I visited their office on Saturday they said the only damage had been the loss of a few windows in the building, which has hundreds of panes. The building opened in 1988 and had already survived Hurricane Andrew, which paused right over the building and caused no damage. No damage was encountered at Coral’s second floor offices.

Susan Straker, president and CEO, said that Coral was closed when Hurricane Wilma came through, but that it was “business as usual” on Tuesday. While the building did not have power, it had back-up generators, which were in use Tuesday through Friday. She said that the generators’ supply of gasoline was about to run out on Friday, but that the power had been restored that night. Coral subscribes to Agility’s backup system, but Straker said she was happy not to have to use it.

Coral Insu-rance insures properties in three South Florida counties, but according to Stra-ker, policyholders reported superficial damage. As of Saturday afternoon the total number of claims called in was 950. Of those, 50 percent were already assigned to adjusters.

She said Coral was encouraging policyholders to call in their claims, even if they did not reach their deductible. She and D. Jay Carbine, vice president of Underwriting and Claims, were expecting more calls this week as customers regained their power and phone service.

Long gas lines everywhere

On Oct. 28, in both Dade and Broward counties, very few businesses had electricity and there were very few service stations available with electricity so that motorists could find gasoline.

E&L’s damage minor

Minor damage was evident when I approached the offices of E&L Insurance Services on Miami’s busy Southwest Eighth Street. A service station two blocks from the office was one of the few places to have gasoline, and a line of cars was backed up across the street from E&L and stretched around the corner and out of sight.

E&L’s Enrique Ruiz, president of the Latin American Insurance Agents, said the only damage his office sustained was the loss of the “L” in the sign on his building saying E&L Insurance Services.

Ruiz said many agents in Dade and Broward counties were without electricity or phone service. At the same time, he said a majority of their policyholders were also without electricity.

Oct. 25, when Ruiz came to his office and discovered he had electricity, he began calling local agencies and carriers, let-
ting them know he had electricity and offering them the use of office space if they needed it.

Oct. 28, 65 percent of the homes and businesses in Miami and North Miami were without electricity, FPL said they were attempting to return service “before Thanksgiving.”

Sol Insurance on generators

Daniel Baptista, principal in Sol Insurance on Flagler Street in Miami, had a totally different situation from E&L’s, his electricity was out, but he had hooked up to a portable generator. Even though he had a generator, he could not receive incoming calls, but like Ruiz, had been calling policyholders and carriers to let them know his office was open.

Suarez-Resnick ‘thankful’

Dulce Suarez-Resnick, former LAIA president, lives in Miramar, which received the brunt of Wilma. The eye came over Hialeah, Miami Lakes, Miramar, Pembroke Pines and Weston as it moved northeast to Palm Beach. Suarez-Resnick suffered minor damage to her roof, many fallen trees and no electricity.

“I have before and after pictures of my house, what a difference, but we are thankful because it could have been much worse,” Suarez-Resnick said. “I won a small generator at the LAAIA Convention and fellow board member, Daniel Baptista, came up from his house in Miami to gas it up and get it started for me so that I could keep my refrigerator going.”

Suarez-Resnick said the agency she recently joined, HBA Insurance Group, was up and running Oct. 25 using a back-up generator. The staff had lanterns, batteries, snack bags and water.

“I started taking claims right after the storm,” Suarez-Resnick said. “Many of my clients have my cell number and I keep a folder that has the claims hotline numbers
or the various companies. My cell was working until Oct. 28 until the network went down.”

Suarez-Resnick said that for the past few years she has e-mailed her clients a list of claims hotline numbers before the storm. She tells them to call in the claims directly.

“Unfortunately I don’t have every customers’ e-mail address,” she said. “On Tuesday morning I started calling my clients on their cell phones or calling them at home and giving them the numbers where to call to place their claims. They were very surprised.”

Suarez-Resnick said she expects claims calls to pick up after policyholders’ electricity is returned and they have phone service.

Martely writes commercial

Tony Martely, president of the Independent Insurance Agents of Dade County, with offices in Coral Gables, Fla., said a majority of the business he writes is for commercial properties. Friday afternoon, he said three major losses had been reported in North Dade County to his firm, Elliott, McKiever & Stowe. He also said that a lot of claims would involve business interruption policies.

“Our commercial clients are usually well informed and savvy about the insurance they are buying,” Martely explained. Every hurricane season he sends his clients a check-list outlining how they should be prepared in case a hurricane hits.

Carriers at DFS ‘Insurance Villages’

An “insurance village” containing about 20 trailers at which policyholders could make claims was located on West Sunrise Boulevard in Plantation.

Companies represented at the “village” included: AllState, Citizens, Federated National, First Floridian, Florida Select, Florida Surplus Lines, Geico, Hartford, Liberty Mutual, Mercury, Met Life, Nationwide, State Farm, Tower Hill, Travelers, Unitrin, U.S. Automobile Association and Vanguard.

Henry Burke, a Department of Financial Services representative at the department’s trailer in the “village,” said a team of DFS catastrophe experts were there to answer questions from policyholders and to field claims for companies that did not have representatives at that location. DFS also had a trailer in Naples.

Trailers came from Mississippi

Representatives of several of the companies participating in the “village” said they had just brought in their catastrophe trailers from Mississippi and Louisiana.

Bill Woods, with Travelers said his company had six trailers and that he had just drove this one in from Biloxi, Miss.

Both Burke and Woods said on Oct. 29 that Oct. 28 was their busiest day, with claimants 50 deep standing in line to place claims. They said they thought a lot of people had showed up because Broward County schools were out and they came with their families. One insurance company representative commented that the crowd on Friday had been “like a carnival.”

Several reps attributed the lack
of claimants to their concerns with lack

of electricity and that they were hesitant
to use the gas to drive out to the “village.” They anticipated that when the power was restored a lot of claims would be called in by phone and even filed electronically on the Internet.

Two trees fell on this house near the beach in Naples, Fla.

Enrique Ruiz, Latin American Insurance Agents president in front of E&L Insurance Services on Miami’s Southwest Eighth Street holding the “L” that fell from his sign.

Coral Insurance executives Susan Straker, president and CEO, and D. Jay Carbine, vice president of Underwriting Claims.

Citizens Property Insurance had so many people at the “Insurance Village” in Plantation, Fla. that they had to set up chairs and a tent to protect people waiting in line to report their claims.

DFS representative Henry Burke takes a claim for one of the carriers who did not have anyone present at the “Insurance Village.”

Topics Florida Catastrophe Natural Disasters Agencies Claims Mississippi Hurricane