Insurance claims adjusters are making their way across the areas hardest hit by the Arizona Wallow Fire, mainly to meet with evacuees ahead of their return to their homes once an all-clear is issued.
The fire, which has scorched approximately 500,409 acres and has been become the largest fire in Arizona history, has already displaced hundreds of Arizona residents, who are living in make-shift camps, awaiting word on the disposition of their homes as the fire rages on.
“No one has been able to go in there yet,” Angela Thorpe, a spokesperson for
State Farm, which owns 20% of the personal lines property/casualty market, has already paid $1.75 billion in claims generated by weather-related catastrophic storms around the country this spring.
Thorpe says that because the fire is still ongoing, State Farm does not yet have a dollar amount tied to overall expected losses. At this point, the company knows of only one policyholder’s home that burnt to the ground. The bulk of initial claims that State Farm will process will fall into the prohibitive use clause/additional living expense categories, Thorpe added. Smoke damage will also be a primary loss category.
In some cases, the adjusters are finding that what some policyholders need is equal parts claims processing and education about the insured’s coverage limits. Some may find that they are underinsured, and still others will question actual value vs. replacement value coverage limits.
“This is where a face-to-face conversation is needed to sort out each policyholder’s coverage,” said Thorpe.
The multi-faceted nature of this disaster will leave an already parched landscape now vulnerable to flooding as the fires have reduced the ability of the forest floor to absorb and drain the water expected later this year by Arizona monsoons.
So, although the Wallow fire is only 10% contained, the federal government said in a statement on Friday that residents of northeastern Arizona should consider purchasing flood insurance through the FEMA-sponsored National Flood Insurance Program. Applications for flood insurance typically take 30 days for the coverage to come into effect.
