Windstorm Insurance
Windstorm Insurance is a specific kind of property and casualty insurance which provides policyholder for property loss occasioned by the high winds. It may underwrite damages caused by e.g. hurricanes, tornadoes, cyclones. Losses typically pertain to outside ruin property and livestock inside the home.
Huge losses after windstorms
Every natural disaster carries high cost begotten be destruction. It runs not only on lives but also on private property or public infrastructure and nature. Some examples of evaluated economic losses after the windstorms [1][2]:
- Hurricane Floyd in 1999 caused insured losses of US$1.96 billion (USA)
- Hurricane Andrew in 1992 total losses approximated US$30 billion (USA)
- Hurricane Lothar in 1999 over US$5.8 billion estimated losses (Europe)
- Hurricane Martin in 1999 evaluated at US$2.4 billion (Europe)
Insurance companies
People who live on the hazard areas of high winds very often buy additional guarantees to protect their livestock.The insurance companies use risk assessment models to rate economic hazard of windstorms. The mentioned scheme is composed of four fundamental units [3]:
- hazard - define overall severity of the threat, for example, the speed of the wind
- exposure - presents the geographic attributes,
- vulnerability -calculate the connection between the risk and its effect or an approximate cost of an overhaul the damage,
- loss - compute the economic losses for each insurance elucidation.
However concrete assessment tendency to hazard is very complicated. It is all as the result of the impossibility to anticipate vulnerability fabric from which a particular building is build on the quality of structure, the size of the building, speed of the wind, duration of the storm, etc[4].
Policyholder action after the windstorm
The policyholder must follow strictly established procedures to receive money from insurance. A quick response is very important. Many windstorm insurance companies set a time frame for their policies and only at a certain time are you required to report damage caused by the high wind. It is conditioned by the fact that many unrepaired problems can cause more damage later. First of all after a windstorm the policyholder should know the hurricane date and save all related news and articles, also document any visible damage by taking photos or recording a video. After that, the property is being checked by at least two reputable contractors who estimate and record the damage. After collecting all this information and evidence, you can contact the claims department to arrange a visit date for the claims adjuster. It is not necessary but it's worth having one of the contractors during the insurance adjuster's inspection to provide equitable assessment. After this visit, the policyholder's must wait for the decision of claim has been rejected or accepted[5].
Footnotes
| Windstorm Insurance — recommended articles |
| Insurance cover note — Confidentiality of information — Property inventory — Period of indemnity — Proof of loss — Routine maintenance — Pure risk — COSHH assessment — Implementation of information security management system |
References
- Bouwer L. M. (2010), Have disaster loses increased due to antropoenic climate change?
- Bresch D.N., Bisping M., Lemcke G. (2000), Storm over Europe. An underestimated risk
- Khanduri A.C., Morrow G.C. (2003), Vulnerability of buildings to windstorms and insurance loss estimation.
- Kim J. M., Woods P. K., Park Y. J., Son K. (2013), Predicting the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association claim payout of commercial buildings from Hurricane Ike
Author: Adrianna Lisak
