The remnants of Hurricane Ida brought record-breaking rain, flooding large parts of NYC.
Insurance companies are braced for a massive wave of claims in New York following record-breaking rains left behind by the remnants of Hurricane Ida. State officials are calling for insurers to step up their processing, to help flood victims to recover more quickly from the damage they suffered.
Large areas of New York City were submerged by the massive rainfall that came on fast.
The New York State Department of Financial Services, which regulates insurance companies in the state, is pushing those insurers to expedite claims relating to the storm. Homes and businesses were submerged by sudden flooding from what was left of Hurricane Ida.
“In this emergency situation, DFS expects all insurers to do their part,” read a statement issued by the department. The statement referred to the “speedy resolution of claims” by insurers as being “imperative”.
The Department of Financial Services also stated that it would be boosting the number of people available for processing the claims by speeding up its own independent insurance adjuster approval process that would make it possible for adjusters outside the state to work in New York.
The flooding left behind by Ida called to mind the response by insurance companies to Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
Many people across New York couldn’t help but compare the flooding in NYC to the devastation left behind by Hurricane Sandy, the superstorm that slammed the city in October 2021. It destroyed about 300 homes and damaged over 20,000, according to city officials.
In Westchester County, north of NYC, the Red Cross used Mamaroneck High School as a shelter for people whose homes were heavily damaged or destroyed by Ida. Last Thursday, 125 people sheltered there, and it remained open as of the writing of this article.
The storm damage placed the spotlight on just how vulnerable sizeable sections of New York City’s infrastructure remain to extreme weather. This is becoming an increasingly worrying issue as storms become both more severe and frequent, placing these areas at a growing risk of damage and the need to file claims with insurance companies.
A nonprofit called Center for New York City Neighborhoods created a resource called FloodHelpNY.org to help residents of NYC to determine the flood risk of their own home or business through a website search. The nonprofit receives funding from both the city and the state.
