The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Months of storm cleanup, insurance claims left
Months of cleanup, insurance claims left in storm’s wake
The power might be restored and schools reopened after severe storms ravaged the region earlier this month, but cleanup efforts and battles over insurance claims are only just beginning.
Fairfield County towns are scrambling to assess and record the damage to apply for federal disaster aid, while thousands of families jockey for appointments with backlogged insurance adjusters, arborists and contractors.
Ridgefield First Selectman Rudy Marconi, who also leads the state’s regional emergency planning team, distilled the advice offered by many experts in one simple phrase:
“Document, document, document,” he said last week. “Take pictures. If you’re going to fix things, take pictures beforehand. A picture is worth a thousand words.”
That documentary evidence is important not only in making residential home insurance claims, but also in the town’s application for federal aid and in determining residents’ eligibility for reimbursement, officials said.
In New Fairfield, the Doschers and their neighbors on Short Woods Road are still digging out of some of the worst damage left in the storm’s wake.
The 110-mph winds from what meteorologists called a “macroburst” tore down dozens of trees in the neighborhood, trapped residents and killed a woman when a tree crushed the car she was riding in.
An oak tree two feet across was uprooted and crashed through their roof. It was so big that Bartlett Tree had to use its biggest crane to lift it off the house Wednesday afternoon.
The family faces months of cleanup and tens of thousands of dollars in repairs, but their insurance company’s adjuster has yet to appear, Rob Doscher said.
That was unacceptable, so they and several neighbors have hired a private insurance adjuster, New York-based Eric Gruber, to help negotiate with their insurance companies. Gruber’s firm ultimately will take a percentage of the final amount paid by the insurance company.
“The initial response from our insurance was a little lagging, so we took that as a sign that we better get somebody who will be correct,” Rob Doscher said.
“We’re not insurance experts,” he continued. “That’s why we went with the private adjuster. He was reeling off facts that we wouldn’t have known or even thought about. We just want to make sure that we know everything we need to.”
A private adjuster might not be right for every family, however, officials cautioned.
Insurance companies might move slowly, Marconi said, but working with them could avoid difficulties down the road. It’s not a good idea for residents to begin hiring contractors without first talking to their insurers.
It’s the best way, he said, to “be sure that cleanup process (or contractor) is okay prior to going forward, rather than paying someone and find out they weren’t acceptable or didn’t have the proper qualifications.”
Some of the damage in New Fairfield, Brookfield and small pockets of northern Danbury could take months to clean up, said Paul Estefan, Danbury’s director of civil preparedness.
Emergency management personnel have begun surveying their towns to assess the scale of damage for an application for state disaster funding next week, which will then be sent to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. If federal administrators approve the application, it will be submitted to President Donald Trump for final approval.