After a Disaster, How Can the “Helpers” Help?

1
After a Disaster, How Can the Helpers Help?
When a disaster occurs, especially a large
natural disaster where many people are impacted,
people from all over come out to help. As Mr.
Rogers is often quoted, When I was a boy and I
would see scary things in the news, my mother
would say to me, Look for the helpers. You will
always find people who are helping. If you
have lived through a natural disaster like
Moores 2013 tornado you can relate to this. In
2013 Brown OHaver of Oklahoma was only 6 years
old and I personally had a two year old (who
turned two two days before the tornado) and a
nine month old. To say that it was stressful
running a public adjusting firm with two little
ones, one of who was still nursing, would be an
understatement. It was a scary time. Children had
died in their school and adults died as well.
People had nowhere to live and the national guard
was on our corner. There were looters and people
being barred from going back in to their homes.
Times were tough.
2
At the same time there were people driving in
from all over the country to help. My own aunt
from Kentucky drove in to help volunteer with
clean up. People donated clothes and bottled
water. So much bottled water! Bottled water lined
our streets. Businesses donated services and
time. If you looked for helpers, you found them.
Truly, you didnt really have to look too
hard. When a disaster happens and so many people
come to help it feels unappreciative to ask for
people to help in a different way than what they
expected but is important for the helpers and the
people accepting help to understand what is
really needed and what is not. Many volunteer
groups volunteer to clean up. This is a simple
and easy way to help. Cleaning up after a
disaster is a mistake and should not be done. In
order to properly measure and document a loss
the damaged and destroyed items need to be
retained. The insurance policy requires that the
insured allow the insurance company the
opportunity to view the claimed loss. As
unbelievable as it seems just because a home is
a total loss does not mean that the insurance
company will automatically pay policy limits on
the claim. Even when there is no standing walls
or roof on a house you must line item and claim
every single item in your house to be paid for
your loss. Volunteer groups would be much better
utilized if instead of having them clean up and
throwing away debris from a loss helping a person
document their loss. The pastor and his family
at my church at the time lost his home and they
took this advice. They had many volunteers
coming out to help. Their original idea was to
have the volunteers dig through the rubble and
clean and throw away the devastation. Instead
they had the volunteer crew help with the
personal property inventory. As you can see in
this picture, the family took cans of upside down
spray paint (cans that can be sprayed when
holding them upside down) and designated a
section to an individual volunteer. In that
section the volunteer would handwrite a list of
each item they searched and found. The volunteer
would then take a picture of every single item
they listed. This would ensure that if by chance
that item was looted or somehow discarded there
would still be evidence for the insurance
company. At the end of the day every volunteer
turned the list in to the family. The family
then inputted the compiled list in to a
spreadsheet and added the price of the items.
Eventually this family was paid policy limits on
the loss. On the contrary, I had many other
families who had volunteers that came out and
threw away all of their personal property in the
attempt to help. When the family would attempt
to make a list of damaged items for the insurance
company
3
they forgot many of their items and were unable
to come up with a list of their full policy
limits. This caused much more work forcing them
to have to go through old receipts, pictures
before the loss, etc. In some instances they were
never able to compile a full list. Following a
disaster, helpers and volunteers can be vital in
helping you work through the initial shock and
document your claim efficiently. If you
experience a loss or volunteer to help someone
after a loss, remember these tips and tools to
ensure that volunteer efforts are utilized in the
most effective way. Brown OHaver stands ready
to help you with your loss and to assist in
helping you comply with the terms of your policy.