Damage claims from Hurricane Helene continue to trickle in even as assessments from Hurricane Milton mount.
The two hurricanes ripped across a 500-mile path from Florida to the southern Appalachians. As of Sunday, Bloomington-based State Farm had recorded 117,000 claims from Helene and about 17,000 from Milton, according to a company spokesperson.
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 who is impacted," said McDade.
Country Financial's claims are mainly in Georgia. Country does not operate in Florida or North Carolina, two other hard-hit states. Georgia is one of the top three of the 19 states where Country has policies in force.
Country Vice President of Claims and Client Services Jesse Kohlbecker recently returned from the affected region. Kohlbecker said even weeks after Helene, small towns in Georgia between Valdosta and Savannah have moved only a fraction of the storm detritus.
"You saw 10-foot-high stacks of debris for miles along the roadway. It's my understanding that they're going to have to come through and take that first round of debris off the side of the street and they'll make another pass in a couple of weeks and maybe even a third pass," said Kohlbecker.
He said damage to signs and landmarks, and debris that continues to block roads has made it a challenge for claims adjusters to find and get to homeowners. So far, Country has inspected three quarters of the claims filed by its policy holders.
Of the claims filed, 96% of Country’s are for property and not auto; 1% are total losses, said McDade.
Kohlbecker said the nature of the damage in Georgia is different than a traditional convective storm involving rain, hail, and potentially tornadoes.
"These large pine trees are so significant in size and they just don't have branches to kind of break the fall. What I saw was a lot of these pine trees have cut through buildings, causing a lot of structural damage to roofs, which open those roofs for water to infiltrate,” he said.
That complicates repairs and drives up the cost.
“And that's a situation where we have to pull off the roof. Three quarters of the roof has to be peeled back, and new trusses put in place. And while those trusses were damaged and caused those openings in the roof water came into the dwelling. So, the drywall needs to be removed and all the contents," said Kohlbecker.
Hurricane Helene came on the heels of a record-breaking 2023 for Country Financial that had its two largest catastrophe events in March and April of last year. McDade said those were hail and windstorms across Illinois, one of which cost $160 million.
"From a financial standpoint, it represents somewhere between $70-$90 million, right now, of claims for Country. A large event for sure, but not our largest," said McDade about Helene.
State Farm did not offer an estimate of the claims in dollars from its policy holders.
Total damage projections for all insurance carriers vary because many companies have yet to finish processing claims. Most agree damage will top $50 billion, in company with notoriously costly hurricanes such as Katrina, Sandy and Harvey. Milton also could join that list.
“While we expect Milton to be a larger wind loss event compared to hurricanes Debby and Helene, we do not anticipate it to be near the level of insured losses caused by Hurricane Ian,” said Mark Friedlander, director of corporate communications for the industry funded not-for-profit Insurance Information Institute.
The category 4 Ian hit southwest Florida in September 2022 and caused an estimated $50 billion to $60 billion in private insured losses.
Adding to the trauma for homeowners is the fact a large portion of the damage, particularly from Helene is from flooding. Many homeowners do not buy flood insurance because of the expense and will not be able to recoup losses.
