Ric Wellington has worked in insurance since the 1970s and at Greenwich Independent Insurance, the 122-year-old, nine-person shop on Greenwich Avenue where he is principal, since 1981.
He has in that time witnessed a few sturdy storms, including Sandy in October and the Halloween blow of 2011 when heavy snow and trees still in leaf combined in destructive tandem.
“I wouldn”™t call Sandy the biggest, but it was one of our bigger storms,” Wellington said. “We”™ve had a few that were as catastrophic as far as number of claims, but I think Sandy had a few more severe claims.
“The closest I can recall was the nor”™easter of 1992 with the primary damage in Riverside, Old Greenwich and Westport; Sandy was similar to that.”
Wellington said of Sandy and its 13-foot-above-mean-high-tide surge, “We had every kind of damage: fire loss, water loss, tree damage.”
Still, he noted 10 months on, “We have not seen a dramatic increase in people seeking flood insurance.”
Despite encouragement to consider all the costs of rebuilding ”” from architect”™s plans to final landscaping ”” Wellington said federally backed flood insurance tops out at $250,000. Add-ons via private providers can be expensive.
“After Sandy, we saw serious rehabs and we saw complete rehabs,” he said. “We found the cost of construction surprises people. They may be shocked to find the cost of rebuilding can be more than the house is worth.” And for those who get their first contractor estimate, “It”™s a scare when they discover their coverage will not cover the cost of rebuilding.”
Distraught homeowners filled the news, but, said Wellington, “Business properties suffered damage, too, and they will face those same rebuilding costs.”
Businesses were impacted beyond infrastructure, as well. Via data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, the UConn-based Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis determined recently that 7,103 is the number of private sector job-years that can be expected to be lost because of Sandy from November 2012 to December 2014, of which some 3,550 job-years will be shed by small businesses. (A job-year is the number of hours that a full-time employee can work in a year. The commonly accepted standard is 2,080 hours.)
The impacts will trim personal incomes from small businesses by $190 million, the UConn study said, and disposable incomes by $150 million. And tax revenues might decline by $39 million over the next two years.
The study was conducted by Peter Gunther, senior research fellow; Bill Waite, manager of research projects; and Professor Fred Carstensen, director of the Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis.
Among Sandy”™s victims were outdated flood-zone maps.
The new federal flood maps have impacted Greenwich Independent Insurance, which represents, “a lot of companies and offers a full line of insurance,” according to Wellington, including for floods. For some properties, the maps have raised the cost of coverage ”” “dramatically in some cases” ”” but in some instances rates were unaffected.
“We”™re faced with what happened,” Wellington said. “The costs reflect that. Insurance underwriters say higher costs are to come.”
In an assessment of Sandy-related expenses, The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) the Connecticut Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security said as of May 6 more than $283 million in federal disaster assistance, loans and insurance claims were paid. Assistance was ongoing, but by then 96 percent of flood insurance claims had been settled.
Fairfield was among four counties and two Native American nations ”” the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan ”” declared disasters and thus eligible for federal assistance. That assistance included $7.04 million in public assistance grants toward roads, bridges, utilities and other public infrastructure, as well as emergency protective measures taken during and immediately after the storm. FEMA by charter picks up 75 percent of the cost and the remainder is paid for by the state and local governments.
The report said 12,452 Connecticut residents registered with FEMA for federal disaster assistance.
More than $13.7 million in Individual Assistance grants were approved in tandem with nearly 6,500 on-site property inspections.
Businesses were among four broad classes deemed eligible to apply for a piece of $48.2 million in low-interest disaster loans approved by the U.S. Small Business Administration (along with homeowners, renters and private nonprofits).
Additionally, 5,902 flood insurance claims totaling $220,124,212 were paid by May, constituting more than 96 percent of total National Flood Insurance Program claims in the state.
Wellington and staff were fielding calls even as the storm raged, he said. In insurance, fairness and promptness are watchwords and he said he discovered a qualitative difference between insurance providers.
Without naming names, he said, “In major events, you learn a lot about how a specific company responds. There is a difference and it absolutely affects who we choose and recommend to our customers. We want our customers treated fairly and promptly. Some companies were better than others, sometimes dramatically so.”
