Just as Hurricane Matthew‘s fury fell far below expectations in South Florida, so has the number of initial damage claims filed with the area’s largest property insurance companies.
As late as Thursday morning, insurers were expecting to dispatch armies of claims adjusters to the tricounty area on Friday, but then Matthew veered east and spared most of the area from expected hurricane-force winds.
On Friday afternoon, the storm was still battering north and central parts of the state. But by 4 p.m., the state’s largest property insurer, Universal Property & Casualty, had received only 129 claims, said Sean P. Downes, Universal CEO.
Of those, only 37 were from the tricounty area, and most of those were from Palm Beach County, which was hit hardest of the three counties, he said. Just one claim came from Miami-Dade County, he said. “Stuff like a small tree. A tree on a fence. A shingle here and there. Pretty minor.”
State-run Citizens Property Insurance Co., the tricounty region’s largest insurer, had received less than 100 calls by mid-Friday morning, spokesman Michael Peltier said. The company expects more over the next few days, as evacuees return to their homes, and a spike on Monday because “many people incorrectly assume we’re not working over the weekend,” Peltier said.
Rich Widdicombe, president of Heritage Property & Casualty, the tricounty region’s third-largest insurer behind Citizens and Universal, did not provide initial claims numbers but said northern Palm Beach Countysuffered “some damage.” He predicted “we’ll get plenty of claims in Miami-Dade and Broward” but will be in a better position to know how many next week.
“We are focused on North Florida, where people have not been through a storm like this,” Widdicombe said. “Without power, we expect folks to wait before walking around to survey their property.”
