Going Door-to-Door after Hurricane Ian

Hurricane Ian hit Florida with devastating force – destroying houses and vehicles and potentially causing as much as $75 billion in damage.

Even amid the historic damage, our claims team was determined to keep our promise of conducting door-to-door customer welfare checks after a major catastrophe.

Fast review of damaged property is also a crucial part of keeping our promise of exceptional service to our customers. On-scene notes and photos allowed us to begin paying claim checks quickly so covered customers would have the funds to begin getting their lives back on track.

Determination and Ingenuity

Access to many areas was compromised by a badly damaged infrastructure – roads were washed out and bridges were closed to traffic. Claims adjusters across the industry who were attempting to review damages were stymied.

But determined to live up to our promise to our customers to literally be there for them during one of the worst events of their lives, Kyle Appert, our senior technical homeowner claim specialist, dug in.

Since phone service and email access were down, he knew it was very likely that customers had suffered damage to their vehicles and homes but were unable to report it yet. He carefully mapped 100+ customer addresses so he could either speak to them in person or leave a door tag with our contact information if they had evacuated and not yet returned.

With the bridges shut down, Kyle promptly hired a boat to reach customers on Sanibel Island. When he got there, he found rental vehicles were unavailable. So, since he thought that customers’ homes may be inaccessible by car in any event, Kyle did what few other insurance companies’ adjusters did: he rented a bicycle.

Along with his low-tech transportation, Kyle carried a very high-tech tool.

Knowing that storm debris was likely to make some properties inaccessible for review, Kyle, a licensed drone pilot, brought a drone that allowed him to conduct a remote inspection of damaged and destroyed properties. He uploaded his findings at the end of each day as Wi-Fi availability allowed so the payment process could begin ASAP.

As a team, we’re very proud that we were able to issue the majority of payments within 24 hours of receiving Kyle’s findings. Kyle’s exhaustive, above-and-beyond, boots-on-the-ground efforts led to the rapid processing of dozens of claims.

“This is why I do it,” he says. “It feels great to keep a promise in extreme circumstances and come through when people really need us.”