As homeowners begin the daunting cleanup process after Wednesday’s historic hail storm, insurance companies are also being inundated with claims.
Because of that, USAA has set up a mobile catastrophe response vehicle in the Safeway Parking lot in Fountain. We’ve seen them pop up around Colorado Springs before in the aftermath of previous hail storms, windstorms and fires.
I’m at the @USAA mobile catastrophe response unit set up for hail victims in the Safeway parking lot in Fountain. Needless to say, they are extremely busy taking claims right now! We’ll hear from them on what to look out for during this process at 5 & 6 on @KOAA pic.twitter.com/fLWVs8BS0x
— Lena Howland (@LenaHowland) June 14, 2018
All day long, people came by this unit to make claims for cars, roofs, sidings and so much more in the aftermath of this storm.
“It was a really, really bad storm that we had,” Carolyn Stovall, a hail victim said.
This is what’s left of Carolyn Stovall’s car, but it didn’t end there.
“The house, we at least have to have the roof, the siding and we have to have some repairs done to the fence and all of our screens are either bent or they have holes in them for our windows,” she said.
She went to check on her claims at USAA’s mobile catastrophe response unit one day after the storm.
“So we’ve got a set up here of adjusters here helping members that want to come in and file a claim or get questions answered about the process, we’re here to help get them set up, we’ve got a team with the equipment to help get them logged into their accounts and really help get the claims process moving forward for them,” Matt Wilson, USAA Executive Director of Claims Operations said.
They say, in 24 hours alone, they’ve already taken more than 10,000 claims, so they’re encouraging homeowners and car owners to make temporary repairs now.
“One of the common things is a broken window or a skylight and that’s a great opportunity to board that up with some wood or put some plastic on it, you want to prevent water damage from coming in and causing additional damage to your home, same thing with your car,” Wilson said.
Tammy Pettigrew is facing upwards of $200,000 in damage with three cars, a house and a camper which they’ve only used once.
So sad to see this 2002 Mustang completely totaled because of yesterday morning’s awful hail storm! Thank you to Tammy Pettigrew for us all of the damage on your property today, we’re hoping for a quick recovery for your family and every family impacted by this storm. @KOAA pic.twitter.com/v0MwTmcDO8
— Lena Howland (@LenaHowland) June 14, 2018
“I’m kind of like ok, it was stuff, we are ok, the animals are ok, my daughter and her kids are ok, we are going to live through this,” Pettigrew said.
But she’s worried about what she’ll get back.
“Making sure that we’re getting paid out fairly because the amount of money that’s going to come out, there’s a likelihood that we might get underpaid because it’s so much and we want to make sure that it’s fair,” she said.
USAA says for their insurance company, some adjustments can be done remotely and some will be done as soon as they can get an adjuster out to your home. And if the homeowner wants, they can have the contractors there at the same time.
“So we just ask them to be patient in the process, we’re going to try to get them paid as quickly as possible and appropriate,” Wilson said.
This catastrophe response tent will stay open for USAA members from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and will stay open for as many days as needed.
