Nature is never devoid of storms and our life’s nature is quite similar. Many storms gather, occur, and pass away in one lifetime. Sometimes one huge hurricane may tend to destroy everything in our lives, yet we should not fear the tempest. A storm comes to life like a lesson sometimes, when we have no choice but to learn from the atmospheric gale. ~ Attainable
Some of you are familiar with the southeast coast and its weather from June through November. If you’re in that minority, portions of this post will sound familiar. Probably not all of it.
But first, some context.
Disaster
Weather forecasters [usually] detect a hurricane’s activity 2-3 days in advance of landfall and even as I type, the NHC (National Hurricane Center) has its eye on wind activity way out into the Atlantic. Based on my observations as a Florida insurance underwriter for eight years and as a West Tennessee native, I’d say hurricane predictions are more reliable than tornado predictions. Well, generally more predictable on the path they’ll take. Anyway, today we’re looking the wind-with-water type of wrecking ball.
Hurricanes arrive not only with torrential rains and high winds, but also rising waters due to storm surge. The storm’s wind causes this unwanted influx that washes away cars, destroys appliances and furniture on ground-level floors, and erodes beaches and coastal highways. You’re thinking this sounds like a recipe for a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. You’d be right.
The combination of wind plus water–coming and going–is enough of a headache. When you add other complicating factors, it’s a migraine. Consider the impact of these variables:
- Demand for contractors in an area where a catastrophic event has occurred.
- Demand for supplies in an area where a catastrophic event has occurred.
- An environment with heat and humidity.
- Lack of familiarity with insurance coverages, assuming the affected resident purchased insurance. If insurance isn’t in play, that’s a whole different set of problems.
When all the above factors collide, there’s a perfect storm. That storm presents unwanted learning opportunities to people with damaged property. Even though I was in the middle of Florida storm watches the first decade of this century, I was on the carrier side. I knew the coverages to a greater degree than most insureds, but since I sat in a Georgia office, I never suffered the damages.
I still haven’t, but I recently met someone who has.
Engineer to Project Manager [Functionally}
Some months ago I had the pleasure of meeting a new authors’ guild member at our monthly meeting. Her name is Angela Newland, and she and her husband had moved from Florida to Tennessee. The house they moved from sustained significant damage during Hurricane Irma in 2017. While I wanted to get to know her better for a variety of reasons, she had one irresistible hook. Angela had written a book about her experience with an insurance carrier handling her claim and the contractors involved in the reconstruction. I needed to know more, so some days after we met, we had a little chat.
The couple originally moved from Ohio to Florida, in part, to escape the frigid winters. They had been in the new-to-them house for less than a year when Irma struck. During that time, they made a number of necessary repairs and upgrades. They were just settling in to enjoy their little piece of southeastern paradise when Irma arrived and things began to fly. Literally.
While their house was still standing, it sustained significant damage. For those of you who haven’t had a property loss in an area where thousands of other people are simultaneously suffering a loss, be warned. It’s no picnic. Everything is more difficult when you aren’t the only person making a claim. There are never enough contractors or supplies. Or time. Fortunately for Angela and her husband, her background improved her ability to bring the house back to functionality.
Angela’s formal professional training and career was in engineering. At the risk of making a generalization, I have to say that engineers are detail-oriented. They must attend to the minutiae because the consequences of slipshod work habits can have severe, perhaps fatal, consequences.
These deeply ingrained habits stood in good stead for Angela. She documented every ray of sunshine and every shadow that passed subsequent to the storm that laid waste to her beautiful home overlooking the Caloosahatchee River. And I will say that she describes a number of shadows. Part of the conflict arose because of miscommunication between the contractors/architects and the insurer. Part was internal, within the insurer’s office, with Angela’s claim apparently being bounced from one desk to another.
I worked closely with Florida agents for 10 years, and I’m fairly confident that if the company I worked for had had that type of [alleged] mishandling on a scale beyond outliers, I would have heard about it. Loud and clear. I am in no way saying things don’t get fouled up beyond all recognition, I am simply suggesting that the incidents are few and far between. Perhaps I’m being Pollyanna-ish. I don’t know. Either way, saying it doesn’t happen often doesn’t benefit the few to whom it does happen. Angela’s struggles were real.
Lessons
Angela laid out nine lessons at the conclusion of her story. I will not recount all of them, but here are a few I wouldn’t have considered, not in the same way they were presented.
- Know the mortgage contract provisions with regard to the way they impact your property. While I am relatively well-versed in insurance, I am clueless when it comes to mortgage contracts. I should probably read my own.
- Document your property before the storm, during, and after. Know the values under your roof. And of your roof. Take photos. Keep notes of all calls to your carrier, your adjuster, and your contractor.
I would add that the time to talk about worst-case scenarios is before they happen. Meet with your agent so that you understand whether you need additional coverage endorsements. It’s possible that your current carrier doesn’t have capacity/filings for flood coverage, for example. Your agent can direct your path on that.
Angela’s book includes a walk through her experiences and includes much more detail than the space in this post permits. It’s a good read and a great resource for property owners who are not already familiar with southeast coast pitfalls. I’m sure other coasts have some of the same issues. I just can’t speak confidently about those.
Angela’s section on Lessons Learned will be quite useful to the not-yet-initiated who recently moved to a coastal area or are planning to do so. Just a word of caution–due to the aforementioned contractor and supply demands, as well as environmental issues, her story has more valleys than peaks. I’d suggest that you pair your reading time with a Pino Grigio. Her book can be found at anewlandbooks.com.
Just so I don’t leave out the folks in land-locked areas – you have potential for loss, too. Frozen pipes. Tornadoes. Hail. Do you know what to do in the case of any of those types of claims? Do you know what perils are covered in your policy and what your deductibles are? Some of you, of course, are already prepared. I know that Terri and Michele, who are coastal dwellers (and agents I had the pleasure of working with years ago), know all the ins and outs. Maybe you do, too.
Or do you just feel lucky? Well, do you?
We do have a good lake view and it does flood about every 7 years….could use that now. We are build on one of the highest points surrounding the lake. If water gets to our patio the flag flying on the Capitol of Texas will be 50 feet under water. In over 20 years of living here there have been no tornado sightings, warnings nor conditions. Fire, especially of recent, is the primary concern. As to more insurance, I am happily underinsured on our home and on 7 rentals and still paying about $20k per year in insurance. I only buy enough to be sure I can have solid liability coverage….plus an umbrella. Needless to say, I am insurance phobic because insurance is a tax on poor people.