Claims for damage from Hurricane Helena continue to arrive, even as estimates from Hurricane Milton rise.
The two hurricanes crossed a 500-mile path from Florida to the southern Appalachians. As of Sunday, Bloomington-based State Farm had logged 117,000 claims from Helene and about 17,000 from Milton, according to a company spokesman.
Rob McDade, Country Financial's executive vice president, chief financial officer and chief strategy officer, said the Bloomington-based insurer had 4,800 claims as of Monday.
“You know our hearts go out to everyone that is affected,” McDade said.
All of Country Financial's receivables are in Georgia. The state is not operating in Florida or North Carolina, two other hard-hit states. Georgia is one of the top three of 19 states where the country has policies in place.
National Vice President of Claims and Customer Service Jesse Kohlbecker recently returned from the affected region. Kohlbecker said that even weeks after Helena, small Georgia towns between Valdosta and Savannah have moved only a fraction of the storm's debris.
“You saw 10-foot-high piles of debris for miles along the roadway. My understanding is they're going to have to go through and take the first round of debris to the side of the street and they'll do another pass in a couple of weeks and maybe even a third pass,” Kohlbecker said.
He said damage to signs and landmarks and debris that continues to block roadways has made it challenging for claims adjusters to find and reach homeowners. So far, Country has verified three-quarters of the claims submitted by its policyholders.
Of the claims filed, 96% of the country are for real estate, not cars; 1% is the total losses, McDade said.
Kohlbecker said the nature of the damage in Georgia is different from a traditional convective storm involving rain, hail and a potential tornado.
“These big pine trees are so large in size and they just don't have the branches to break the fall. What I saw was that a lot of these pine trees had cut through buildings, causing a lot of structural damage to the roofs, which opened up those roofs for water to come in,” he said.
This complicates repairs and increases costs.
“And this is a situation where we have to take the roof off. Three-quarters of the roof must be peeled off and new trusses installed. And while those trusses were damaged and caused those holes in the roof, the water got into the home. So the drywall has to be removed and all the contents,” Kohlbecker said.
Hurricane Helena came on the heels of Country Financial's record 2023, which had its two biggest crashes in March and April last year. McDade said it was hail and wind storms in Illinois, one of which cost $160 million.
“Financially, this represents somewhere between $70-$90 million, currently, in claims for Country. A big event for sure, but not the biggest,” McDade said of Helene.
State Farm did not offer a dollar estimate of its policyholders' claims.
Estimates of total damages for all insurance carriers vary because many companies have not yet finished processing claims. Most agree that damages will exceed $50 billion in the company of notoriously expensive hurricanes like Katrina, Sandy and Harvey. Milton can also join that list.
“While we expect Milton to be a larger wind loss event compared to Hurricanes Debby and Helene, we do not expect it to be anywhere near the level of insured losses caused by Hurricane Ian,” said Mark Friedlander, director of corporate communications for the funded industry Nonprofit Insurance Information Institute.
Category 4 Ian hit southwest Florida in September 2022 and caused an estimated $50 to $60 billion in losses to private insurers.
Adding to the trauma for homeowners is the fact that much of the damage, especially from Helene, was from flooding. Many homeowners do not purchase flood insurance because of the cost and will not be able to recover the losses.