By By MARY-ALLISON LANCASTER Managing editor
Area residents learned valuable lesson's from last year's hurricane and are filing claims of damage from Hurricane Dennis immediately.
According to the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I), standard business and homeowners policies will cover wind damage from Hurricane Dennis, however, such polices do not cover damage from flooding. Flood damage is covered under policies written by the National Flood Insurance Program.
Horton Insurance opened Monday for its regular business hours. By Tuesday, Keith Horton said they had filed about 150 claims, approximately 50 of which were in Brewton.
Horton said that there was no comparison between Hurricane Dennis and Ivan. Dennis was "just a windstorm compared to Ivan," he said.
Horton Insurance had filed more than 2,000 claims related to Hurricane Ivan.
Horton urges everyone to file their claims immediately. He said he realized most people were still without power or phone, but he hopes that people will not hesitate to file like some did when Ivan hit.
Alisha Hammack at Brewton Insurance said that the claims "keep coming in." She said that they had filed 34-40 claims Tuesday morning. Approximately 300 or more claims related to Ivan had been filed last year.
She said that combining commercial and personal they had probably fewer than 100 claims filed.
Cunningham said that she couldn't even "guesstimate" how many claims were filed related to Ivan. She added that they had probably filed more claims when tornadoes went through the area, as compared to the claims for Dennis.
According to a news release sent by Alfa Insurance, President Jerry A. Newby said the company has been updating its disaster preparedness plan to better serve its customers.
The I.I.I. offers the following suggestions to homeowners whose property has been damaged: