Losing Power Is Not The Worst Thing
The evening of November 19th brought strong winds from the east, toppling trees onto homes and disabling power to over half a million PSE customers. The unique aspect of this storm was not wind speed, but wind direction.
Nearly all of our customers were affected by the storm. Some lost power for a couple hours, most for a few days. Fortunately, those we reached out to in our current book of business were not crushed by a fallen tree.
Most storms in our region come from the southwest. Trees have been conditioned to resist winds from that general direction. Winds came from the east in this case, uprooting and breaking more trees with less wind speed.
‘TR’ has been know for “Tree Response” over the years and are making room in our production schedule to rebuild storm damaged homes over the next several months.
Building On Experience
In preparation for the 1993 Inaugural Day storm, our crews stocked up on tarps, plywood and fuel for the chainsaws. The next morning, we literally went door to door on English Hill in Redmond to prevent further damage to affected homes.
Ever since that response, we have been on call to provide assistance for our community.
Insurance Company Involvement
- Remove the tree & tarp the damaged structure
- Initiate insurance claim & schedule adjuster for site visit
- Contact contractor for initial consultation
- Receive adjuster’s report and settlement offer
- Expect contractor’s repair estimate to be 3x more than insurance company
- Allow contractor to advocate for increased loss compensation
- Begin repair process
- Settle with insurance company for actual costs
Understanding Your Policy
In our experience, the insurance company wants to close the claim as quickly and cheaply as possible. When we advocate for our customers, repairs are often completed before the claim is closed. This ensures the insurance company reimburses more closely to the actual costs incurred.
Most home insurance policies will cover storm damage repair. Adjusters simply don’t account for everything required, and the estimating system they use is less than half the average of localized costs.
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