FORT WAYNE – The region’s insurance offices have been flooded this week with calls from clients making water-related claims.
“It’s been a little crazy around here,” said Beverly Goff, an independent agent who estimated 10 clients have called with concerns. “I missed my granddaughter’s ballet recital (Thursday) night because of the number of calls.”
Two or three clients will file valid claims, she said. Most of her weeks are claim-free.
Goff, co-owner of Northern Insurance LLC, has had to break the bad news to at least a couple of clients: If water is coming from the outside in, damage isn’t covered under a homeowner’s policy. A separate flood policy is required.
Homeowner’s policies cover damage from water that comes into a home through a drain or sewer – but only up to a specified dollar amount, Goff said. Consumers with home theaters or other expensive items in their basements should review – and possibly increase – their coverage, she said.
State Farm has received almost 300,000 storm-related claims in the past two months, with the majority from tornado damage in the South.
The insurer in Bloomington, Ill., said payments are in the hundreds of millions of dollars and rising, according to an Associated Press report.
Flooding is affecting farmland as well as area homes.
Cameron Silveus, sales vice president for Silveus Insurance Group, said some flooded farmland won’t be planted this year and some will be planted late.
With commodity prices so high, there’s a great incentive to try to plant as many fields as possible, he said.
“It kind of goes against the grain of a farmer to let a field sit empty,” he said.
June 5 is the magic date for planting corn, as far an insurance coverage goes, Silveus said. If the kernels aren’t in the ground by then, policyholders can choose to file a claim or opt for late planting coverage. But the revenue guarantee decreases by 1 percent per day, he said.
About 55 percent of Indiana’s corn fields were planted by Friday and only about 15 percent of Ohio’s typical corn crop was in, according to Silveus’ sources. Warsaw-based Silveus Insurance Group sells crop-protection policies nationwide.
Cameron Silveus, one of three brothers who co-own the company, described Ohio’s corn planting rate as “shockingly low” for this time of year.
“Farmers are very, very nervous right now,” he said. “We’re getting inundated right now with calls.”
