July 12, 2005

Florida homeowner insurance companies began mobilizing their armies of adjusters Monday in the wake of Hurricane Dennis, but so far had little to report as far as the number of homeowner claims and how much it will cost to repair damaged property.

Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state's insurer of last resort, received about 1,000 claims as of Monday afternoon. The company had no dollar figures yet on the damages.

"Keep in mind that we've got a lot of evacuees and that many may be just getting back into their homes," spokesman Justin Glover said.

Citizens is the second-largest home insurer in the state, with about 740,000 policies.

Last year, in the wake of Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne, the company generated more consumer complaints than any other insurer because of slow service and mishandled claims.

For Dennis, Citizens is putting 200 insurance adjusters on the ground and has set up a mobile response center in Pensacola.

"Our response has been very quick," Glover said.

With the departure of Dennis, Citizens also resumed writing new homeowner policies late Sunday.

The company stops selling policies anytime a storm watch or warning is issued for any part of Florida.

State Farm, the largest insurer in Florida, didn't expect to have any storm claim numbers to report until this afternoon.

Spokesman Tom Hagerty said the company was establishing mobile offices in Fort Walton Beach, Milton, Pensacola and Pace.

"Right now, we're focused on getting people into the affected areas," Hagerty said.

Allstate Floridian, the No. 3 insurer in Florida, was sending 500 adjusters into the western Panhandle and nearby states. Like State Farm, it had no claims numbers to report Monday.

Dennis caused an estimated $1 billion to $2.5 billion in insured damage in the United States, according to AIR Worldwide Corp. of Boston, an insurance risk modeling company.

Munich Re, the world's biggest reinsurance company, pegged the insured damage at an estimated $3 billion to $5 billion.

Risk Management Solutions of Newark, Calif., projected insured loses between $1 billion and $5 billion.

By contrast, Ivan caused $7.11 billion in insured losses, the third-largest damage total for a hurricane.