Calm definitely comes before storm for insurers

June 15--COLUMBUS -- Weber Insurance agent Jane Schneider wasn't surprised her Wednesday morning was busy after Tuesday night's storm.

"It's kind of a given after a night like last night," Schneider said.

A majority of the claims she received were a result of the 75 mph winds that ripped through the city the night before.

"Mostly tree damage," she said. "Some trees on roofs, some trees on cars, a lot of shingles blown off."

The calls came from across the city, but she did notice some similarities.

"The calls that I took were where there was the concentration of the more mature trees," she said. "Probably the old neighborhoods in town with the older trees."

Cornerstone Insurance Group branch manager Janice Hamilton said that business received claims from as far away as Genoa.

And Mike Rambour, owner of Rambour Realty and Insurance Agency, said a majority of the roughly 50 claims his business received by noon Wednesday were from Columbus and Creston.

"It did some damage," he said of the storm.

He's also gotten some claims from rural clients.

"I have some farmers with some pivots that were damaged due to the wind," said Rambour. "I'm not seeing a lot of the hail losses. It's mostly wind and tree damage."

He hasn't received any claims for crop damage since it's too early in the season for fields to be damaged by wind.

"The crops are at a pretty young stage," he said. "They'd have to have pretty big hail to damage them."

Melissa Santos with the Columbus Farm Bureau office reported calls about missing shingles and one case of a tree falling on a fence.

"Nothing really crazy," she said.

Santos does have a nice memento from the storm courtesy of her husband Javier and a trampoline that flew across their yard.

"My husband has a video of a trampoline that the wind picked up and lifted over our pickup and hit our neighbor's house," she said.

Like what you just read?

Subscribe today for the best in-depth coverage of local news, sports and entertainment.

View our subscription options

___

(c)2017 the Columbus Telegram (Columbus, Neb.)

Visit the Columbus Telegram (Columbus, Neb.) at www.columbustelegram.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.