Hurricanes

In the event a hurricane passes through our area, please know we will make every effort to be available to you as soon as conditions are safe.

At the start of hurricane season we focus our management team on making preparations to ensure proper response time to handle claims. Our MANY meetings focus on the best way to be available to our employees and our customers. Our team addresses many issues, such as:

How soon will we re-open our office?

While we wish it to be immediate, we want to give our employees a little time to make provision to care of their home & family first.  
This enables each of us to concentrate on our role in helping our customers.

How will we provide for the children of our employees?

With schools and daycares closed we eliminate this worry as much as possible by making arrangements ahead of time for their care. This enables us to concentrate on our role in helping the customer.

How will we provide for our employees?

With no power at home and many restaurants without service we make it our responsibility to provide lunch and if necessary, a place to stay, for our employees so they can be available & energized. This enables us to concentrate on our responsibility of helping our customers.

How do we provide our employees with everything they need to service our customers?

Each department packs hurricane supplies with hardcopies of customer information, hundreds of claim forms to be completed by hand, area maps to give to adjusters, hardcopies of company information (names & phone numbers), office supplies (anything we need to set up a temporary work space) and just like our homes; flashlights, batteries, etc. We make checklists of EVERYTHING we could possibly need and just like Santa at Christmas we check it twice when a hurricane is predicted to hit our area. By having everything needed it enables us to concentrate on our role in helping the customer.

How will we provide for our customer “IF” ??? 

We to try hard to take as many things into consideration as we possibly can.  We review past years for areas of improvement AND then discuss alternate plans.  (We make plans, plans and more plans!)

In a minor hurricane will it be “business as usual”?

Yes.  The power may be out, but we protect all of our equipment & records by waterproofing them before we leave. This way, when we get power we can take care of business quickly; electronically.  This year we will again have available an even more “BUSINESS AS USUAL” way, because we have “BIG JOHN” to help us take care of you!  “BIG JOHN” is our large diesel generator, and this is his second hurricane season with us. He promises to keep our entire office up and running as usual (what a DEERE), but we still wake him up every month and run him just to keep him awake and ready. 

What if our building is destroyed?   

In those first hours and first couple of days we will we set up in the office parking lot if needs be.  We make plans to initially be without phones, power & water and to have everything we need to take care of business the old fashioned way; pen & paper. 

What if our building is destroyed and we need an alternate location?

While our building was built in 2005 and meets all of the latest building codes, we have made preparations ahead of time in case we find ourselves without facilities.  We have contracted ahead of time for a double-wide office building, provided by a former subsidiary of General Electric, to be delivered within 72 hours after a disaster; equipped with its own generator; 25 computers and desks; and a hook-up to a satellite system. 

What if we cannot submit claims to companies?

We make plans to fax or overnight claims. If these services are not available, we make plans to have someone drive and hand deliver the claims to in state insurance companies or find the closest, unaffected area to use the services of an out of state company.

Either way we are here for you. If you cannot reach us by phone, if it doesn’t ring or no-one answers the call, and conditions are SAFE, stop by our office. We are here if it is at all possible. We are committed to handling your claim in the most efficient manner possible, regardless of the conditions.

One thing we ask…..be PATIENT AND KIND to each other. Everyone is doing their best to handle what a hurricane leaves behind.