N.C. insurance commissioner talks about Helene relief and claims efforts

October 1, 2024 5:12 PM

Storm Helene Causes Massive Flooding Across Swath Of Western North Carolina — Storm damage near the Biltmore Village in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene on September 28, 2024 in Asheville, North Carolina. Hurricane Helene made landfall September 26 in Florida's Big Bend with winds up to 140 mph.

After the devastation of Hurricane Helene in the western part of North Carolina, the state has been acting to rescue survivors and provide emergency food, water and supplies. Also, the state's Department of Insurance has begun deploying staff to help residents file insurance claims. Digital Insurance spoke with insurance commissioner Mike Causey on October 1 about his department's efforts. He described challenges with getting relief from FEMA. The following excerpts have been edited for clarity.

What are the conditions you’re seeing now in the aftermath of Helene?

North Carolina insurance commissioner Mike Causey.

There are parts that look like a war zone and we still have people stranded. We're still in a rescue mode, rescuing people, and there's just a big need for food, water, supplies. We have people that do not have electricity, they do not have cell service, they don't have fresh water, just all sorts of issues. And we had hundreds of roads that were closed because the roads were washed away or bridges were washed out.

I'm up here now in Burke County. People have been working here since last Thursday [Sept. 26] with the Department of Insurance. We have our sworn law enforcement officers on the ground, and we actually went door to door last Thursday, when the flood waters were rising. We went to 144 homes door to door to evacuate people, to keep them safe. Our folks have worked around the clock, as well as other state agencies. The governor has sent planes and helicopters in with supplies. It's still hard to get to many of these areas, but we're making some slow progress.

It’s early, but what is happening so far with handling claims for damage from homeowners?

The claims have just started trickling in. It'll be a slow process. My concern is most people were flooded, and we had whole communities swept away by flood waters. I mean, they're gone. Most of those people, 97% to 98% of those people, did not have flood insurance, so they don't have insurance, so they're going to rely on FEMA grants or what have you.

One of my concerns, I talked to the former insurance commissioner of Louisiana, Commissioner Jim Donelon, and he told me they had they dealt with some issues after their disaster with the last hurricanes, that FEMA has a rule that you have to have your claim in within 60 days of the date of damage or loss. That's near impossible for people to do that in these conditions. So it's difficult. According to Commissioner Donelon, it's difficult to get extensions for that from FEMA. So I'm trying to make the residents aware. First, we're making sure people have a place to stay and food, water and that type of thing. But then we're doing everything we can from the Department of Insurance to walk with them and help guide them through any homeowners claims they may have, or help them with the FEMA process, or anything we can help with.

What are the challenges in collecting information for claims?

It's going to be very difficult. If you had photos that you could [use,] but the photos were washed away. Your house was washed away. There's virtually nothing there, other than maybe some public documents showing what the tax value was.

What are the next steps? What happens in the next week, month, 60 days?

As soon as possible, we will have consumer assistance personnel in the areas. We're going to start next week in the counties that we can go ahead and access and set up consumer assistance locations where consumers can come to us or call us, and we'll help them in any claims filing. We'll also be setting up insurance villages, or insurance claim villages, working with the major insurance companies, where we've done this before, with Hurricane Florence. We had the major insurance companies that brought their mobile command centers into the state and set up to have consumers come through there to that mobile office, and fill out the paperwork.

I talked with the insurance commissioner in Georgia yesterday, and he's already working on that in the state of Georgia.

This will take months and years to recover, and we're going to do everything we can at the Department of Insurance to help people get the help they need. And we've been preaching the need for flood insurance since Hurricane Florence, and this is certainly an eye-opener, and I hope I can get our legislators to look at some sort of program, maybe to have a statewide flood insurance program in place.