Weather related disasters set a record in 2020 and that trend continued into 2021 with several serious storms across much of the country.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in 2020 the 22 weather/climate disaster events that exceeded $1 billion each broke the previous annual record of 16 such events. These included hurricanes (oh, so many hurricanes), tornadoes, wildfire, floods, hail and other storms.
In addition, there were many more disasters whose cost per event was less than $1 billion. According to Cal Fire the 2020 Fire Season was “the largest wildfire season recorded in California’s modern history.” There were over 4.2 million acres burned. Other states also saw wildfires, including Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington.
There were so many hurricanes in 2020 that the storm names exceeded the 21 names planned for the season. Storms had to be named from the Greek alphabet, which has only occurred once before.
The new year has started out with rain, ice and hail storms; snowstorms that rolled from west to east across the country; related power and water outages; and tornados—and it’s only February.
While we cannot control the weather, we can prepare so that a weather disaster doesn’t become a financial disaster.
Preparation
Some of the ways that you can prepare before disaster strikes is to know the risks for you or your client’s property, insure the property accurately and inventory possessions. Sharing these resources can help build your agent-client relationship.
Anyone who needs to know the risks for specific properties can find out those risks by working with HazardHub. The risks include those related to earth, wind, fire, water and man-made ones. Some examples are earthquakes, sinkholes, hurricanes, hail, floods, nuclear facility locations, wildfires and many more.
Once you know the specific risks for the property the owner can prepare for those possibilities. There are many resources available through government, non-profit and local organizations that can provide detailed lists of items to stock, paperwork to save or other actions to take to prepare. For example, if the property is in a tornado prone area, having a safe room built might be a prudent investment.
Regardless of where the home is, creating a home inventory is wise as it could result in a more complete reimbursement for the belongings.
Accurately insuring the property is a key step in the process of purchasing protection for the home (or business or farm). An accurate replacement cost provides the proper amount of coverage so that the homeowner can rebuild afterward what they had before the disaster.
The e2Value estimator tools were specifically designed to handle homes of all sizes, ages and values, whether they are newly built, vintage homes or those in between. Whether you are looking for valuations for high-value homes, Mainstreet® homes, condos, co-ops, commercial properties, manufactured homes, log cabins, or farms and ranches, our patented estimator can quickly calculate the cost of replacing a residential, commercial or farm structure and provide you with a fast, cost-effective and accurate replacement cost valuation. Contact us for more information.