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An enormous cleanup
operation is under way in the state of Florida, where
Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne struck in a
six-week period. Not since 1886 has a single state seen been
hit by four hurricanes in a single season. As soon as
disaster relief vehicles were allowed in affected areas,
Safeco's National Catastrophe Team hit the ground, issuing
checks to policyholders on the spot and expediting claims.
Pattie Gillette, a unit manager for Safeco's property field
team in Sacramento, was one of the people on the ground
first. This is her story.
I arrived in Florida on Aug. 20, just seven days after
Hurricane Charley hit Florida, to lead Safeco claims
professionals inspecting homeowners damages and commercial
damages.
We were lucky. Safeco has a claims office in Maitland and we
were able to work from there. But even with a good home base
to work from, it wasn't easy getting to customers
quickly.
The volume of incoming claims was incredibly heavy from the
start. There were thousands of customers in need of help.
Everyone was pitching in. We called in additional support
from surrounding regions and many of the folks already on
the ground extended their stays.
Our customers in the hardest hit areas &endash; Port
Charlotte, Ft. Myers, Cape Coral, and Punta Gorda &endash;
required immediate attention. I had team members in those
areas and throughout Central Florida. Yet the closest hotel
we could secure for our staff members was in Tampa, two
hours away. In many instances there was no Internet
access, phones were down and some hotels had no electricity
or air conditioning. . We found ways
to work around the challenges. One adjuster went to
Starbucks to work &endash; taking advantage of wireless
access and a steady stream of caffeine; another worked a
schedule out with another who had working Internet.
One would be in the field while the other would upload his
claims.
As far as field work goes, this wasn't a walk in the park.
It was hot, it was humid, and every day we saw heavy rains.
The hurricane and the floods that followed displaced
wildlife as well. The field staff had to deal with displaced
snakes and they were on a constant vigil for alligators. One
of our claims professionals even came within a few yards of
a panther. (Thankfully, the panther was as afraid of us as
we were of him. He ran like the wind when the homeowner
clapped his hands.)
Just two weeks into my Charley assignment, Frances came on
the scene. NOAA projected a Class 4 hurricane as large as
all of Texas, and the storm was expected to cause twice the
damage of Hurricane Charley. The governor ordered
evacuations, and so Safeco staffers took to the roads,
heading for Mobile, Ala., along with 2 million other
people. We were like a herd of turtles. What was
normally an eight-hour trip stretched to 11 hours
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We stayed in Mobile for two
days working from a conference room at the hotel. The calls
subsided a bit, because many Floridians had evacuated.
When Frances seemed to lose some its strength, we moved to
Tallahassee, Fla. This put us about five hours closer to
Orlando and would give us a jump in getting back to help our
customers. The night we arrived a few members of our team
were sitting in the hotel lobby and watched with heavy
hearts as an evacuee from the Florida Keys - learned that
her father had lost his life during the hurricane. It
was a very stressful and trying time for everyone.
Two days later, as Frances weakened to tropical storm
status; we started back into the impacted areas. We drove
through the dwindling bands of the storm. The winds were
still strong &endash; 70 mph or more &endash; and the rain
came down in sheets. The clouds blocked out the light,
making it difficult to see. At one point in the drive, we
came across a large pine tree that had fallen across the
left lane of the freeway. We didn't see it until we were
almost on top of it, and if we'd been traveling in that left
lane, we'd have run right into it.
Within 48 hours after Frances, we had fully regrouped in
Orlando and two full teams were in place to handle the two
events. The regions sent even more people to Florida
and they assigned others to work for the CAT team from their
offices.
One week later, we were interrupted again, this time by
Hurricane Ivan. The storm came ashore as a category 4
hurricane hitting the outer islands and Pensacola, leaving a
path of destruction in its wake. The Highway I-10 bridge
that we had driven across a week earlier was destroyed. The
mood was one of disbelief: How could this happen to Florida
yet again? I said a silent prayer, "Please let them be
safe."
The teams split and have set up to handle our customers
affected by Ivan and stay in service to those affected by
Charley and Frances.
This has been an incredible experience filled with 14-hour
days and sleepless nights. But I wouldn't trade it for
anything in the world. I am only one very small
part of a very large team. If I could I would stay and
see this through to the end. But I have a family to
get back to as well and my three weeks will be six by the
time leave. But if I am needed I will return. There
are people to help.
Pattie Gillette
Unit Manager
SWR Property Field
Editors note: Pattie
returned to Sacramento a few days after Hurricane Jeanne
struck land. Safeco's National Catastrophe Team remains in
full force in Florida, Alabama and surrounding areas,
assisting customers recovering from this unprecedented
hurricane season. At this point, Safeco has made partial or
full payments on the vast majority of claims stemming from
Charley, and claims from all four events are being processed
swiftly, allowing the rebuilding process to begin.
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