For the insurance company, catastrophe claims handling is different than servicing claims in normal times; you need to be seen ASAP, but so do many others. For you, the catastrophe is the sudden massive disruption of your life; the company's catastrophe is the tremendous logistical battle required to keep the promises made to you by your agent.
Your interests will best be served by understanding how to work with the company and their adjuster. Hopefully, the information below will help you to make the best of a very bad experience.
THE BASICS
Take lots of pictures, then take some more.
You might have to remove, cover, or repair damage before your adjuster can see it.
Your adjuster will likely ask for a few of the pictures, but certainly not hundreds of them. Tag the best of them to show the adjuster if asked.
Make temporary repairs as is necessary and practical.
You have an obligation to mitigate damages. While that statement is very subjective, know that you shouldn't just leave your roof uncovered to allow water to further damage your home, but nobody expects dangerous heroics either. Use reasonable judgement.
Keep track of time and expenses for temporary repair and cleanup.
This can help you recover a significant sum of money. Keep track of man-hours and other expenses and give them to your adjuster.
Note: The adjuster may be able to allow labor costs for cleanup at standard laborer rates. Make sure to ask.
Keep additional living expense records.
Additional Living Expense (ALE) cost is another often overlooked detail.
Contents (aka Unscheduled Personal Property - UPP) - Begin cataloging this as soon as possible.
This can be a monumental task, but you're the best person to do this. Your adjuster cannot do this anywhere near as well as you can.
INSIDE BASEBALL
Most catastrophe (Cat) adjusters are independent contractors and have every incentive to keep you satisfied. My personal motto when I ran claims was, "Make the customer happy whether they like it or not."
The insurance company needs to CLOSE CLAIMS and keep them closed. This won't happen if the claim is not adjusted properly. The company has every incentive to be thorough so the claim will not need to be reopened.
The claim payment check is not a settlement (for property claims). If additional damages or costs are discovered after the initial claim payment, the claim is reopened to consider that additional loss.
THIS IS GOING TO TAKE SOME TIME
In catastrophe claim situations like we're now just getting into, very few of the claims are settled in the first weeks, most take months, and some take years to close. In general, the better you are prepared at the beginning, the sooner your claim will close to your satisfaction.
As for appraisals, it's far too soon to be thinking about that now. Working with your adjuster to achieve your common objective of closing the claim and keeping it closed is your best bet for an expedient end of this process. Failing that, we'll take a look at what the appraisal process can do for you.
Stay safe.
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