Hurricane Frances, even as it threatens to wreak more damage on Florida today, already has proved far more difficult for insurance companies and storm victims to cope with than Charley three weeks ago.
Hurricane Charley struck Florida's west coast with greater winds than those Frances unleashed on the east coast. But Charley took a quick and narrow jaunt across Florida.
Frances' agonizingly slow and vast trek across Florida's midsection has left property owners grappling with widespread flooding and damage caused by prolonged exposure to high winds. That means a homeowner with a claim might have a longer-than-expected wait to meet with an insurance adjuster. And when they do, they may discover the damage is not covered if they had not bought a separate flood insurance policy.
The good news, if there is any, is that clusters of complete destruction appear to be fewer than those produced by Charley, a Category 4 storm. Frances made land as a Category 2 storm with winds at 105 mph.
"We're not having the Charley-like ground zero damage," said Sam Miller of the Florida Insurance Council, an industry trade group. "There is root damage. Trees are down. There's power outages and consistent widespread damage to structures. But it's not the massive, concentrated damage like Charley produced. We're hoping that holds up."
An estimate from the Insurance Information Institute is not expected until at least Wednesday. But institute chief economist Bob Hartwig said Sunday the multibillion dollars in insured damage from the storm should not prove insurmountable to Florida's insurance industry.
"It's much better than we originally anticipated" when Frances loomed as a much larger storm off Florida's coast, Hartwig said. "Right now I would not expect damages to be extraordinarily larger than Charley. . . . We clearly do not have (a Hurricane) Andrew-like situation on our hands."
Insured damage from Charley is estimated at $6.8-billion; 1992's Hurricane Andrew, the costliest hurricane ever, racked up $15.5-billion in insured damage, or $20.2-billion adjusted to today's dollars.
For Floridians who were physically drained just waiting for Frances' plodding arrival late Saturday, the wait isn't over. Insurers on Sunday were making no promises when they would be able to enter Frances-ravaged communities and begin taking claims.
"It may take slightly longer than with Charley. We'll have to wait and see when the storm clears," said Bill Mellander, national catastrophe spokesperson for Allstate Insurance.
Within two days after Charley, major insurers had set up mobile units in hard-hit areas such as Punta Gorda and Arcadia. Now, a fleet of Allstate mobile response units - and a fresh catastrophe team of about 600 Allstate adjusters - are on stand-by, Mellander said. With the specter of a possible Category 5 hurricane bearing down on Florida, as forecasters feared early on, Allstate pulled the mobile response fleet out of Florida. The staging area was moved from Orlando to Mobile, Ala.
Perhaps the biggest distinction between Frances and Charley is the kind of damage left behind. For Frances, flooding is expected to make up a higher percentage of claims.
Typically, flooding is not covered by homeowners' insurance. Property owners have to buy flood insurance separately through the National Flood Insurance Program.
"A lot of people in Florida do have flood policies. . . . We have 40 percent of all the flood policies in the United States," said Miller of the Florida Insurance Council. Yet, a large number of those polices are in coastal areas where flood insurance is required as a condition in taking out a mortgage. For inland counties now susceptible to flooding, such as Polk, flood insurance is less likely.
If you or your insurance company think flooding is responsible for damage and you do not have flood insurance, help is available.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has a program to help pay damages in such cases, as it does to help other uninsured and underinsured catastrophe victims. Aid from FEMA was triggered after President Bush declared all of Florida a national disaster area.
On Sunday, FEMA officials said issues like processing claims were premature.
"Our focus today is just really trying to get through this. Our focus is on the emergencies," FEMA spokeswoman Susie Webb said. "The disaster is not over."
ON THE WEB
Are you covered? Check your homeowners' policy. Helen Huntley walked you through it. Story online at www.sptimes.com/links
WHERE TO CALL ABOUT COVERAGE
Policyholders with questions regarding coverage for damage caused by Hurricane Frances should contact their insurance agent or company representative. Special toll-free numbers have been set up by companies. This and other hurricane-related information can be found at the Insurance Information Institute's Web site, www.insurance.info Information from the Federal Emergency Management Agency is available at 800-621-FEMA 621-3362 or online at www.fema.gov (The speech or hearing impaired may call (TTY) 800-462-7585.)
The following insurance companies have set up hotlines:
