The cost of cleaning up: Flood insurance a necessity for Golden Isles residents

Sept. 14--Mary Harrell, a resident of the Riverside neighborhood of Brunswick, stood outside her flooded, marsh-front home Wednesday afternoon. Splotches of mud speckled across her T-shirt as she described the mess she had been cleaning up all day.

Her cleanup process was halted, though, since the insurance company had told her to wait on an adjuster before throwing anything out.

"They told us not to throw anything away, to take lots of pictures, and that somebody would be back in touch with us within 48 hours," Harrell said Wednesday. "And it's getting close to 48 hours."

After slipping and sliding on the piles of mud left behind, Harrell told the insurance company she had to start mopping it up.

"I told him we had to get the mud out of the house and they weren't going to let us even do that, but I told them it's going to be more damage at the house," she said. "So they told us to do what we could to decrease the damage and keep receipts."

A few miles north from the Riverside neighborhood, Mike Kennedy, of Smith Road, had already begun drying out and cleaning up Irma's mess Wednesday. After Hurricane Matthew last year, Kennedy was familiar with the insurance claim process.

"We videotaped everything," Kennedy said. "It's bad to say, but I've already been through this and as long as you video tape to show everything, they'll come in and look at the water lines and they'll pay you depending on how high it is."

Not all those affected by Hurricane Irma's rising waters felt the same confidence when trying to speak to their insurance companies, and some were dismayed to find out that their coverage wasn't going to replace everything they lost.

Regular homeowners and renters insurance policies do not typically cover flood damage, and separate flood insurance coverage must be purchased for structure damage and damage to the contents inside homes.

Floods are the nation's most common and costly natural disaster and cause millions of dollars in damage every year, according to the Federal Emergency Management Association website. Floods cost America, on average, $8.2 billion each year, FEMA reports, referencing 2015 data, and recovering from just one inch of water inside your building can cost about $27,000.

Some homes in Glynn County reported upwards of 3 feet of water thrashing through their doors, leaving behind a costly wave of damage.

State Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens toured Glynn and Camden counties Wednesday to assess that damage. Despite the limbs littering nearly every street and dozens of uprooted oaks, Hudgens said it appeared Brunswick had more damage caused by flooding than by wind.

"I saw lots of houses with water lines a foot high and people dragging wet furniture from their homes," he said. "I was surprised by the damage."

Nearly half of Glynn County's residential and commercial structures are lying in areas of potential danger in the event of flooding, according to the county's website. The value of those structures totals nearly seven billion dollars, the website states, and there is a 66.67% chance that a flood will occur during any given year.

By the time a storm like Irma is detected on the radar, it's too late for residents in flood zones to protect their property. Most flood insurance policies have a 30-day waiting period from the date of purchase until your policy goes into effect.

Although federal disaster assistance may become available after a large-scale storm, this money may come in the form of disaster loans that must be paid back or grants that are often much less than what is needed to recover, FEMA states on their website, and the organization pushes for those who live in flood zones to have proper flood insurance in place.

Even for those with policies in place, flood damage can be overwhelming. Kennedy had just finished repairing the lower level of his home after Hurricane Matthew hit last year, and he said he hadn't yet decided whether to redo the space the again. For now, he was simply cleaning it out and documenting the damage for his insurance.

"We videotaped it before and we'll videotape it after, because I knew we would get some water," he said. "I just didn't know it would be this bad."

Reporter Gordon Jackson contributed to this article.

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