Historic rain and flooding results in 820 auto insurance claims so far — and that’s just one company [South Florida Sun-Sentinel]

Auto insurance claims are already being reported by South Florida residents whose vehicles were inundated by this week’s historic flooding.

Several insurers contacted for this report said it was too soon to provide claims tallies, but State Farm, one of the nation’s largest insurers, received 820 claims by late Thursday afternoon, spokeswoman Michal Brower said.

Brower and rival Geico said their companies were responding to claims reports on Thursday.

“We continually monitor and are ready and available to respond to our customers with damage from storms,” Brower said by email. “Customers with damage are encouraged to report their damage/claim as soon as possible.”

A Geico representative did not provide a claims tally but said by email, “Our teams are already on the ground assisting customers in South Florida impacted by the severe flooding.”

Progressive Insurance spokesman Jeff Sidel said the company does not disclose claims figures. But he said Progressive has declared a catastrophe for Broward and Miami-Dade counties. “We are thinking about and are ready to assist our customers affected by the recent storms in South Florida,” Sidel said. He asked that Progressive customers report their claim as soon as possible by phone or through its mobile app.

Most comprehensive auto policies cover flood damage after the policy deductible is met.

Flood damage to homes is typically covered by flood insurance, which owners buy as a rider to their standard multiperil policy or as a separate policy backed by the National Flood Insurance Program. Some flood policies combine federally backed coverage with private, or “excess” insurance that kicks in above the the NFIP limit of $250,000 in structural damage and $100,000 for contents.

Filing auto claims

State Farm provided these tips for auto insurance customers whose vehicles were caught in flood water:

Filing property claims

Tips from the National Flood Insurance Program, which is run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, include these:

Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071, on Twitter @ronhurtibise or by email at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com.

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