The relentless hurricane season is keeping Bloomington-based insurers busy.
With seven weeks to go, the 2017 hurricane season is already the third most active on record. That’s led to tens of thousands of claims worth hundreds of millions of dollars for State Farm Insurance and Country Financial, the companies said Friday.
Hurricane Harvey, which killed 77 people and flooded much of Houston in late August, has led to 39,420 auto claims totaling $426.8 million at State Farm, a company spokesperson said.
That was followed by Hurricane Irma, which killed more than 130 people in early September as it moved across the Atlantic and into Florida. State Farm has received 16,860 auto claims totaling $61.8 million related to Irma, and 47,380 homeowners’ claims totaling $111.9 million, the company said.
“We deployed over 1,000 claims associates in response to Harvey and Irma,” said State Farm spokesperson Missy Dundov. “We also had State Farm agents, agents’ staff, and local employees helping customers with their claims. In addition to our on-the-ground team, we have three Centralized Catastrophe Services (CCS) operations and our Initial Loss Reporting (ILR) teams located throughout the United States helping with our customers’ claims.”
“We also have the advantage of a fleet of mobile claim handling facilities, innovatively designed to support our ability to provide optimal customer service even under challenging conditions,” Dundov said in an email.
Meanwhile, Country Financial received 3,800 claims related to Irma in Georgia and Alabama. Most claims were for wind damage, with another 800 for food spoilage, said spokesperson Chris Stroisch. (Country doesn’t sell auto and homeowners insurance in Florida and Texas.)
Stroisch said 95 percent of those claims have already been closed out. Monetary estimates for Country’s claims were not available.
Country had around 70 catastrophe team members throughout Georgia and Alabama, with many in place before Irma even hit, Stroisch said.
“It has been a busy, busy summer when it comes to hurricanes in the South,” Stroisch said.
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