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Despite hurricane, coastal insurance ‘road show’ goes on

Agents help spread the message about necessary coverages

Tropical storms and hurricanes tend to put a hitch in the most well crafted plans. Such was the case in August 2007 as a weakened Tropical Storm Erin and a just-forming Hurricane Dean threatened to blow off course an Insurance Council of Texas “road show” designed to bring a message about disaster preparedness and the importance of securing sufficient insurance coverages to citizens along the hurricane-vulnerable Texas coast.

But as they say on Broadway, the show must go on – and it did.

ICT spokesman Mark Hanna had recruited a crew of experts to help him with a media blitz and a series of personal appearances during the 1,000 mile journey from Port Arthur to Port Isabel. They included representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the American Red Cross and NASA. The Aug. 20 – 24 trip would encompass 20 speaking opportunities in 13 cities over five days.

Ironically, however, when weather forecasters began mentioning the possibility that Hurricane Dean could move into the Gulf of Mexico and head toward Texas the disaster preparedness experts backed out, leaving Hanna to go it alone. Or so he thought.

Although weather events pulled the original cadre of experts elsewhere, Hanna found help from other sources. A woman from the Orange, Texas, chapter of the Red Cross stepped in to help, as did independent insurance agents from multiple cities along the coast. Terry Schwertner, with the McFerrin Insurance Agency in Port Neches; Clyde Neal, with the Neal Insurance Agency in Angleton; James Elbert, a former chairman of the Texas Windstorm Insurance Associa-tion and president of the Elbert Insurance Agency in Lake Jackson; and David Smith, with the Smith-Reagan Insurance Agency in San Benito, all offered their time and their local knowledge to help with the education campaign, appearing on talk shows and speaking at meetings of local civic organizations.

This was the second year in a row that Hanna has undertaken what he termed his “Super Tour.” This year was a little different, however, as the ICT’s Board of Directors had authorized a $10,000 media budget to buy radio spots and ad space in local newspapers.

In the end, Hanna felt the money and the time were both well spent. He said he thinks he reached as many as 1 million coastal residents through the combination of newspaper ads, radio spots, radio and television talk shows and presentations to civic groups.

“I’ve got to give credit to my ICT Board of Directors who came up with the idea of a media budget to help spread the word,” Hanna said. “It was first discussed and approved during our Board meeting Aug. 3 and I was on the road buying radio time and ads three weeks later.”

And Hanna is already gearing up for next year’s tour, when he plans to include traveling companions with bilingual skills to more effectively communicate with Spanish-speaking coastal residents.

“Our goal will be to reach twice as many people as we did this year,” Hanna said.

Topics Catastrophe Texas Hurricane