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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