State Farm delivers relief to Carolinas in wake of Helene

AccuWeather

Michal Brower of State Farm reported that over 59,000 auto and homeowner claims were made across 14 states impacted by Hurricane Helene, which included flood and wind damage as they deliver support.

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00:00on the ground, evaluating storm valuing damage and also helping file claims.

00:07Joining us now is State Farm spokesperson Michael Brower.

00:10And good morning and thanks for joining us.

00:13Good morning. Thank you for having me.

00:16How many claims have been filed so far and what type of claims and damage are you seeing?

00:22Yes. So far, as of this morning, State Farm has received over 59,000 auto and homeowner claims.

00:30And that's across the 14 states that have been impacted through this storm.

00:36And that includes both auto and homeowner claims.

00:39And what we're seeing with a lot of auto, of course, is flood damage.

00:43And for our homeowners, you're seeing a lot of windstorm damage.

00:48And what about the drivers of the cars that had so much flood damage as well?

00:56What should they be doing?

00:59Absolutely. And I'm here in Florida.

01:01And I know that especially like the Tampa, St. Pete, all along our coast,

01:06we have many, many residents that their vehicles were flooded, were impacted by the floodwaters.

01:13So we are setting up some customer care sites here in Florida for those residents and drivers who had their vehicles.

01:20One of the things that we always recommend is if your car ended up flooded at all,

01:25one of the best things to do is just do not try to start it.

01:28That could actually damage your vehicle even more.

01:32Another good thing that's good to do for claim purposes is to record the level of the floodwaters on your vehicle.

01:40That will help your automotive technician be able to figure out how far the floodwaters might have damaged your vehicle.

01:49And of course, the most important thing, too, is as soon as you realize maybe you're returning to your residence now

01:55and you're realizing you have home and auto damage,

01:57the first thing we always recommend people to do is to reach out to your insurance company,

02:02reach out to State Farm and file your claim because that'll help you get on the road to recovery just as soon as possible.

02:08That's helpful because I think a lot of these folks, it's like, you know, where do I even begin?

02:12So just kind of breaking the basics down, that's really helpful.

02:15All right. Our next question here is about what should homeowners then with property damage do after the storm?

02:20You just spoke about the vehicle damage, but what should homeowners be doing?

02:24Yeah, and absolutely. And for homeowners, of course, safety is top priority.

02:28You know, you always want to make sure that you only enter a home when it's fully safe to do so.

02:34One of the things we always recommend is if you can and it's safe to do so, make some temporary repairs,

02:40like especially if you have water that maybe came in, might be boarding, temporarily boarding up some windows

02:46so more water doesn't come in or, you know, making sure that you can get any flood water out as possible

02:52and then start drying out your home as much as possible.

02:56And then, of course, reaching out to your insurance claim, your agent to get that process started.

03:02And also, you know, you might want to go ahead and start reaching out to contractors that can help you with,

03:09you know, either temporarily protecting your home until we can start the process to rebuild and recover

03:16for all these communities that have been impacted.

03:19And what are the filing options for those with damage from hilling?

03:23Well, we're going to reach our customers wherever they're at.

03:27Now, we realize that quite a few along the path of the storm do now have their power and Internet connection back.

03:34So we have a ton of, you know, tech ways that people can file their claim.

03:40They can file it through your insurance app.

03:42You can file it usually online on a website.

03:45You can call your local agent.

03:48And we can text.

03:49You can text to a link and get your claim started that way also.

03:53Now, we do realize that there might be quite a few in some of the more northern states that might not have their, you know,

04:02their ability to connect online yet.

04:04So that's why we're already headed that way and we're going to be setting up as soon as it's safe to do so.

04:10We'll be setting up some in-person sites.

04:12That way people who either can't connect to online services or they just prefer a face-to-face connection,

04:21we're going to be setting up tents and vehicles in their areas so they can come in in person.

04:26And sometimes it's just helpful to be talked through how to file your claim also.

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