Hurricane Isaias Insurance Help Center: Where It Is, When It's Open and What to Bring

Isaias came ashore near Destin at 8:30 p.m. Central on Friday, October 9, as a Category 2 hurricane with 105 mph winds. By Saturday morning about 448,000 Florida customers had lost power, and gusts had topped 100 mph from Pensacola to Santa Rosa Sound. For a lot of families in Escambia, Santa Rosa and Okaloosa counties, the next step after the chainsaw is the insurance call, and that is where the state's new help center comes in.

Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia opened the first Insurance Assistance Hub in Destin on Sunday, October 11. The state says it was the fastest a hub has ever been set up after a hurricane landfall. Here is what you need to know before you go.

Where the Isaias insurance hub is and when it's open

What the hub can help with, and what it can't

The hub is a place to sit across from your insurance company and a state consumer specialist at the same time. If you have not reached your carrier by phone, if you do not understand what your policy covers, or if you already filed and are stuck, this is the fastest way to get a human answer this week.

It is not a claims office in the sense of writing you a check on the spot. According to reporting on the launch, the hub does not guarantee payments, does not process FEMA assistance and does not sell new policies. Go in expecting to start or move your claim forward, get your questions answered, and walk out knowing the next step.

What to bring to the insurance hub

The state has not published an official checklist. This is the list we give homeowners after every storm, because it is what makes the first conversation with a carrier go quickly instead of turning into three follow-up calls.

• Your insurance company name and policy number. If you can pull up the declarations page on your phone or from email, even better. It shows your coverage limits and your hurricane deductible.
• A photo ID.
• Photos and video of the damage, taken before cleanup. Wide shots of each side of the house, close-ups of the roof, ceilings, walls and anything that got wet. Your phone timestamps them for you.
• Receipts for anything you already paid for. Tarps, a tarp crew, water extraction, a hotel night, a generator. Keep every one.
• A simple list of damaged items. What it is, roughly how old, roughly what it cost. It doesn't have to be perfect today.
• Your mortgage company's name. If you have a mortgage, the lender is often listed on claim checks for structural damage.

Before the claim: protect the house now

Most homeowners policies expect you to take reasonable steps to keep damage from getting worse, and an open roof in October is the most common way a storm claim doubles in size. A missing patch of shingles lets the next rain soak the decking, then the insulation, then the drywall. That second round of damage is harder to explain to an adjuster than the first.

An emergency tarp is the standard fix. It should cover the damaged area with plenty of overlap, be fastened so the wind can't get under it, and be photographed before and after it goes on. Keep the invoice with the rest of your claim paperwork. If you are not sure what's under the missing shingles, a free roof inspection with dated photos gives you a record of the damage as it stood after Isaias, whether or not you end up filing.

Claim deadlines and the hurricane deductible

Florida law gives you one year from the date of loss to give your insurer notice of a new or reopened hurricane claim, and 18 months for a supplemental claim, under section 627.70132 of the Florida Statutes. That sounds like a lot of time. It isn't, once you count the weeks it takes to get a roofer, an adjuster and sometimes a second opinion out to the house during a busy recovery. Starting the process this month keeps your options open.

State officials have also told Panhandle residents to expect a hurricane deductible on Isaias claims. In Florida that deductible is usually a percentage of your dwelling coverage rather than a flat dollar amount, so on a home insured for $300,000, a 2% deductible is $6,000 and a 5% deductible is $15,000. Your declarations page shows which one you have. Knowing that number before you meet the adjuster changes how you read every estimate that follows.

Who to watch out for after Isaias

The CFO's office warned that fraud usually rises after a storm, naming unlicensed contractors, unlicensed adjusters and scammers targeting people with storm damage. A few habits protect you from almost all of it:

• Look up the license before anyone gets on your roof. Every Florida roofing contractor has a state license you can check in under a minute at MyFloridaLicense.com. Ours are CCC1334804 and CGC1534283.
• Don't sign over your claim. Florida no longer allows assignment of benefits on homeowners policies issued on or after January 1, 2023. If someone at your door asks you to sign paperwork that lets them deal with your insurer for you, stop and read it twice.
• Don't pay the full job up front. A reasonable deposit for materials is normal. Paying everything before work starts is how people lose money after hurricanes.
• Report anything that feels off to the state fraud hotline at 1-800-378-0445 or at FraudFreeFlorida.com.

FEMA and other help for Isaias

As of October 12, Florida has a federal pre-landfall declaration for Isaias. Governor DeSantis said county damage assessments will decide whether the state qualifies for a full disaster declaration, and that a full declaration is what would open FEMA individual assistance to homeowners. Until that happens, your homeowners policy is the main path for roof and structure damage.

Two free resources are worth saving in your phone. Florida Disaster Legal Aid offers free civil legal help at 833-513-2940, which is useful if a landlord, insurer or contractor dispute comes up. And dialing 211 connects you to local resources for food, shelter and recovery help in your county.

If you want the bigger picture of how this storm developed, our Isaias storm coverage from October 7 walks through the forecast as it came together. And if the damage is already obvious from the driveway, our storm damage repair team can document it and stop the leaks while your claim moves forward.

Isaias insurance help center: frequently asked questions