September 28, 2024, WTVT-TV, Fox 13 News, Tampa – Insurance Advisor and disaster recovery expert Lisa Miller shares her advice and outlines the various steps to take in filing Hurricane Helene claims with your insurance company in this interview with anchor Russell Rhodes. (Original story location, including video version: https://www.fox13news.com/video/1523774)
TAMPA, Fla. – Transcript of interview, with timecode:
Russell Rhodes 00:00
Hurricane Helene caused major flooding and damage all along the Gulf Coast and for thousands of residents, that now means you have to deal with your insurance company. So where do you even start here? For some insight, let’s bring in insurance advisor Lisa Miller. Good Morning,
Lisa Miller 00:22
Good morning.
Russell Rhodes 00:22
Thanks for taking time to visit with us. What’s your first step? What’s the first thing you need to do if you’ve got damage?
Lisa Miller 00:30
The first thing you need to do is take pictures. Take pictures of every angle, of every of every facet of damage that you have. And I want to be clear, you know there is both property insurance coverage and flood insurance coverage, and I hope so many of your viewers do have flood insurance coverage, but for any insurance company, they want to see visual images of the damage, and it’s so helpful if you can do it as quickly as possible, because it may be a few days before an adjuster comes to see you, Russell,
Russell Rhodes 01:02
Good, okay, pictures, let’s go backwards and talk about flood and property insurance and homeowners insurance, because storm surge is what caused a whole lot of the damage around here. Is that going to be a flood insurance issue?
Lisa Miller 01:20
Yes, if you want to just distinguish between the two, if the rain comes through the roof, that’s most likely, not always, wind driven rain, which is covered by property insurance. If it’s surging, then it is coming up and rising, that’s a flood insurance issue. I can be that general about it. And of course, so many people don’t have flood insurance. They buy property insurance, and they think that flood is covered in their property insurance. And sadly, it is not.
Russell Rhodes 01:57
So you’re just going to have to reach out to your company, or companies, in this case, if you’ve got both policies, to figure out which is which damage you have, right?
Lisa Miller 02:09
Yes, if you have a flood insurance policy, you know the 800 number. You’ll find the 800 number to call. Nine times out of 10, it’s with the National Flood Insurance Program, NFIP, and you can call and they’ll send out an adjuster. The property insurance company will have an adjuster as well. And here’s a trick. If you as a homeowner can try to coordinate both adjusters coming at the same time, it is so much easier on the homeowner to get them to come at the same time, so they can talk about, the adjusters can talk about which is going to be covered under flood and which is going to be covered under property, and both adjusters are right there on the spot. The homeowner can take notes, and it’s much more efficient, Russell, if the if the homeowner can make that happen. It takes a lot of doing to make that happen,
Russell Rhodes 02:59
I’m sure it will, especially with everything that’s going on right now, right? All right, let me ask you this question, because it is going to be the story after this is all over with, is what is this going to do? We know property insurance is hard right now in Florida, it’s difficult. What do you think this is going to do next for us?
Lisa Miller 03:23
You know, this is a manageable event, and I use that term very strongly. Yes, it is. Russell. This event for Florida’s property insurance industry is very manageable, and the claim numbers will be low, and you will be shocked when you see the totals when the Office of Insurance Regulation puts those out compared to the damage that is in our state and our country. This is flood damage. And so the flood insurers, the National Program, will take the brunt of these claims. The property insurance companies in this state, I know, because our insurance regulator makes sure, he’s awesome, that they will be strong, that they can handle these claims. These are not going to be in the hundreds of thousands of claims in our state for property insurance.
Russell Rhodes 04:18
I think you’ve just made a lot of people feel a whole lot better. Lisa, we got to run. Thank you. I’m sure we’ll be talking again very soon. Okay?
Lisa Miller 04:26
Anytime. Thank you.
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