Tips for Post-Storm Restoration

Listed in: Emergency Preparedness

The following is a list of recommendations from a provider who experienced extensive facility damage after Hurricane Michael. Providers may find this helpful as they work through post-Helene and post-Milton recovery and restoration activities.

1. Be leery of remediation companies. If they are allowed to run free, they will use up your insurance before you can rebuild.
2. Hire your own Environmental Hygienist. If you allow the remediation company to hire the Hygienist, they could run wild and uncontrolled spending your insurance money.
3. Recognize that in most counties, if your damage exceeds 50% of the value of your building you will be required to bring the entire building up to code. This would necessitate the demolition and rebuilding of your building. County ordinances will dictate how this is determined. If you proceed with a remediation company and end up having to demolish the building, all the remediation expense is wasted money.
4. Hire a local lawyer that will handle this claim and litigate this claim if necessary. In addition to the local lawyer, hire a lawyer that is an expert in insurance policies, traditional claims, and bath faith claims. This provider used a local litigator but hired Terrie Didier from Beggs and Lane in Pensacola as the insurance specialist.  
5. If you have plenty of insurance to cover this claim, consider hiring a professional legitimate public adjuster such as Tutwiler and Associates in Tampa, Florida. https://publicadjuster.com
6. There are plenty of public adjusters that are unscrupulous, but there are firms like Tutwiler that have a solid professional reputation. They know what damage occurs during a storm and how to repair it. If you base your repairs on what you see are damaged like the roof, you may find years later that something unseen should have been included in your claim. The public adjuster can also work with your legal team as the insurance adjuster decides what the insurance company thinks needs to be done to the building. In this provider's case, he really didn’t need a public adjuster for the nursing home because the damage exceeded its coverage.He did use Tutwiler for my other business claims.
7. If your building is closed and uninhabited for a period, you will likely have to do an air quality test prior to re-inhabiting your building. This will likely be impossible to obtain without replacing all the duct work and air handlers.
8. Take an inventory of all contents that are removed from the building. Pictures or videos of disposed contents are helpful when you must prove what is required to be replaced by the insurance company.
9. The insurance company will tell you that you must mitigate further damage to the building. If a new building is required, the migration is wasted money.  
10. Hire a forensic accountant to prepare your business interruption claim.This provider used Bill Legier from New Orleans https://legier.com.