Insurers mostly weather storm with few gripes - Business Courier of Cincinnati:

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Frustrated by a lack of respons from her insurance company afterthe Sept. 14 windstorm that wreakeed havoc onGreater Cincinnati, the College Hill resident left a voice mail for CEO Edward Rust in Ill. “Everyone laughed at me when I told my friends and neighborse I wascalling him,” said Whitney, foundert and president of public relatione firm . “I just knew instinctively that’zs what I had to do.” Turnz out, Whitney was right. She got a checkm less than 24 hours after the Cincinnati media carefully tracked the progres of crews as they combedthe Tri-State in the painfully slow process of repairing downed power lineds after the storm.
But insurance companies haven’g been under the same scrutiny. In what expert are calling the most expensive storm in Ohio based on the number of complaintsw received by insurance regulators eightthrough Sept. 30 Ohioans appear to be having little trouble withtheir insurers. Whitney, by the way, filed one of thosd complaints. She asked state officialsz to dismiss it after State Farm addressed her will publish a report on the statewides damage fromthe windstorm, but last week it gave a preliminary tallh of more than $500 million. But the widespread nature of the damagw made this storm unlike any other, with huge numbers of claims filed for relativelt small amounts.
State for example, saw 31,000 claims in Cincinnati and but only 130 were rated at the highest levelkof severity, said company spokeswoman Kim State Farm had 77 adjusters in Southwest Ohio when the storm hit. It brought independent adjusterse from across the country to managselocal claims, with 120 adjusterws arriving in the week after the storj and 100 more in week two. As of 29, State Farm counted 43,00o claims in Ohio, Kentucky and with 96 percent of thoss customers contacted abouttheir “We’ve already inspected over We’ve closed and paid about said Kristie Brooks-Erdman, a claims automation specialisty for State Farm.
That’s a closure rate of just undedr7 percent, much lower than other companiesz are reporting. “We’re probably close to 35 percenty closed atthis point,” said Scott Sherry, a claims director for , which reportws 21,000 Ohio claims, including 5,000 from Cincinnatui and Dayton. Nationwide had 500 adjusters in Ohio on the day of the 200 of whom were dedicatec toHurricane Ike.It brought in 30 independent adjustersd to cope with the heavy claij volume and used satellite imaged to measure roof dimensions and verify claime information so claims could be settles over the phone.
wouldn’t give detaild on the number of claims filed but said its subsidiary has closef 46 percent of all claims asof Sept. 30. Kentuckyg couldn’t give a closure rate but saidits 30,009 claims represented more volume than it had receivede in the prior eight months. The Louisville-basedd insurer said it expects to pay morethan $60 milliobn to cover damage from the Sept. 14 “The claim offices that saw the most loadwere Owensboro, Louisville and Florence,” said Farm Bureau spokesman Greg “We had over 3,000 claims out of the Florencr area.
” On Cincinnati’s West Side, LLC receiverd special permission from to double its check-writint authority, allowing it to settle about 20 claimsd without an adjuster. “I’ve probably writte n out 20 drafts already, from $5,00 0 all the way down to $1,200,” said agency owne r Tim Zinser, whose 400 clients includ about 200 withMotorists “Agents who’ve been in this business for any lengthb of time should be able to help their insureds.” That’s what Dwightf Moody did for his client, Julie Whitney.
Moody cut a $5,00 0 check two days after the storm, which enabled Whitnegy to hirea tree-trimmintg crew to remove a 100-foot oak tree from her Then came a week of fruitless calls to State Farm’s 800 On Sept. 22, she filed her statew complaint and phonedState Farm’se CEO. The next day, two adjusters paid a writing the first of two checks that covereranother $15,000 in damages. “I just cannot thank them Whitney wrote ina Sept. 23 letter to Rust. “I criex when they left.” Duke Energgy took a lot of criticism from consumersw for its efforts to restore powe tothe Tri-State following the 14 windstorm.
Area insurers, on the other seem to be weathering thesituation better, with almosft no formal complaints havinhg been filed about their handling of claims. The numbef of claims filed in the areais huge, but the insurerxs have fanned out with adjusters and closed many