How a hurricane produced a rapid claims response.

The CAT plan is a playbook for how FCCI handles a catastrophic event. That could include hurricanes, tornadoes, storms, natural disasters, or accidents. In this case, the CAT team started tracking the storm 10 days in advance and met daily five days out. “At that point, we get a better picture of the hurricane’s direction and intensity. We start seeing the cone and where it might impact land. Then we can take specific actions,” said Mark.

The CAT team also gets valuable input from home office Underwriting which forecasts the number of potential claims. FCCI has an experienced team of internal adjusters and established independent adjusters ready to deploy on location. “It’s important to match the right adjuster to the right claim to ensure we have the most qualified person on each case. We also use specialty adjusters who focus on agriculture and farm claims,” said Mark.

The storm briefly intensified offshore to a Category 5 hurricane, before ultimately arriving as a Category 4 – roaring ashore with 150 mph winds shortly after 3:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday, September 28, 2022. But rather than striking Tampa, it struck further south on the barrier islands of Captiva, Sanibel, Pine and the mainland of Fort Myers Beach. Dozens of other Florida cities and towns were severely impacted. Winds, storm surges, building collapses, trees falling and flooding caused 144 deaths, destroyed or damaged 35,000 homes, knocked out power to 2.7 million people and disrupted businesses and infrastructure across the state. When the winds and rain subsided, the total financial impact was estimated at over $50 billion in insured and uninsured losses in what would be the costliest Florida weather disaster in recorded history.

FCCI responded immediately after Hurricane Ian. “Our top priority is ensuring our CAT team is staffed, and everyone knows their role regardless of department. Our goal is to pay what we owe quickly and fairly to our policyholders and get them back to business,” said Mark Kwiatkowski, Vice President of Claims.

Executing FCCI’s CAT plan is a team approach where everyone pulls together to answer the call when agents and policyholders need us. This includes teammates in claims, risk control, business development and underwriting. About 25 volunteers from various departments also worked many hours on the event while performing their regular jobs. Numerous teammates contributed to FCCI’s Hurricane Ian response. The subteams assembled to execute the CAT plan were first contact, policy retrieval, notice of loss reporting, claim services, adjusting and recovery. “Our team collaboration allows us to respond faster than our competitors and resolve claims quickly, restoring our policyholders so they can get on with their business. The fact that FCCI claims stayed under $30 million is impressive and a testament to our catastrophe modeling used by underwriting to keep business concentrations to acceptable levels,” said Garth Crow, Executive Vice President and Chief Claims Officer.

FCCI deployed five adjusters to handle Hurricane Ian claims. Alec Harmer, Mike Roeper, Chuck Street, Matt Raab and Montie Smith were the faces of FCCI on location, meeting with policyholders, assessing damages and starting the recovery process. For the first couple of weeks, this included working seven days a week for up to 12 hours daily to get the job done.

Alec Harmer recounts that claims were coming in steadily throughout October. “We had internal teammates triaging the losses before being dispatched to the adjusters. Those first few days were a balancing act between assessing damage, assigning resources, making contact and helping policyholders understand their coverage,” said Alec.

Mike Roeper commented that policyholders were prepared to wait for damage assessments but were glad to see FCCI arrive early and get to work. “They were surprised to see us so soon conducting our inspections. We listened and assured them we would help get their businesses up and running. It’s what we do every day. By being local, we quickly responded to our customer’s needs,” said Mike.

Chuck Street traveled from Texas to work on-site in Florida. His contacts were amazed that FCCI was setting up appointments so soon after the storm. Some policyholders said they had not heard from their homeowners or flood carriers.

“We met with agents at the more significant losses who were amazed that I had the authority to direct contractors to start the needed work,” said Chuck. One of the policyholders even called to thank Chuck after their settlement payment was hand delivered by an FCCI employee rather than by mail. Chuck said the most rewarding experience was being part of a team with the same goal — to get those businesses back to pre-loss conditions. “Even through all the chaos, we kept our promise,” he said.

FCCI partners with select independent adjusters with particular expertise to assist in handling CAT claims. One, in particular, was Eric McGehee, Partner at Midwest Claims in Lexana, Kansas. “Working with FCCI is more of a friendship than a business relationship. The big thing that sets FCCI apart from other carriers is communication and teamwork. FCCI’s communication is second to none,” said Eric.

According to Mark Winters, FCCI sent enough resources to the affected areas to handle claims quickly. Each adjuster had fewer claims than most carriers, allowing for faster resolutions. “One of the most rewarding aspects of an adjuster’s job, especially with an event like Hurricane Ian, is to meet with the policyholder, talk to them, listen to their stories, understand their challenges and solve their problems with a quick and appropriate settlement,” said Mark.

The scars of Hurricane Ian are still visible today on Florida’s Southwest Coast. And for many residents and businesses, the wounds are still healing. The weather can be a fierce and uncontrollable force. But how we react to it is entirely within our control. FCCI’s careful planning and human response to Hurricane Ian demonstrated that we were more than prepared and able to handle this catastrophic weather event.

Hurricane Ian highlighted many ways FCCI exceeded expectations for our agents and policyholders. Whether establishing personal connections, getting there fast, being visible, assessing damages quickly and fairly, hand-delivering payment checks, or showing care and compassion, these actions made all the difference to those who matter the most.

It was comforting to know that FCCI guided our policyholders through one of the worst disasters they may ever face as business owners. Any carrier can write policies and collect premiums, but at FCCI it always comes down to keeping and fulfilling our promise to be there when our policyholders need us.