As the recovery and rebuilding process begins following Harvey, the challenges many Texas residents will face will be aggravated by their lack flood insurance.
“It’s going to be a problem and it’s going to be a difficult problem to resolve over the next four or five months,” Allstate CEO Tom Wilson told the FOX Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo on Mornings with Maria.
Wilson explained that flooded out cars are less of an issue, telling Bartiromo, “So private insurance companies like Allstate, if your car gets caught in a flood, we cover that. And we have many cars that we’re already talking to customers about either getting them dried out or getting them replaced, and that process is relatively easy for us to do.”
Though cars are covered in the private market, Wilson said houses are covered by the federal government, and unfortunately, the number of people with coverage is low.
“Only about 50% of the people in some of the coastal areas that got hit hard by Harvey, by wind were covered. If you get to Harris County, where Houston is, it’s less than 15% of the population, so 85% of the people are going to be coping with losses that were not covered by insurance because they didn’t purchase it and that’s where it’s going to get hard.”
According to Wilson, the company works with its customers to navigate the process with the government.
“Now, what we’re doing is we’re working with our customers to help them understand how to access the federal government programs – some is aid, some is insurance. For our customers, if they have a federal policy, we’ll actually adjust it for them and work with them to make sure they get their home rebuilt.”
But Wilson warns it will be a slow process for Texas residents to get the money they need to rebuild.
“It’s going to be a difficult situation over the next couple months as people struggle to find the money to rebuild their homes.”
