After hurricanes, the business of rebuilding lives means navigating the insurance claims process

Now that the threat of Hurricanes Helene and Milton has receded, millions of homeowners and business-owners across Florida and the Southeastern U.S. are faced with traversing the often long and laborious process of using insurance to rebuild their lives.

“You’re just traumatized when you have these losses. At some point, you’re just glad you’re alive,” said Don Hornstein, an insurance law expert at the University of North Carolina. “And then you have to turn to the business side of this. It’s tough.”

Helene was a Category 4 storm that first struck Florida’s Gulf Coast on September 26, dumped trillions of gallons of rain and left a trail of destruction for hundreds of miles across several states. At least 246 people have died in what is now the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. since Katrina, according to statistics from the National Hurricane Center.

Two weeks later, Hurricane Milton swept across Florida, killing at least 11 people. The Category 3 storm destroyed coastal communities, tore apart homes, filled streets with mud and spawned a barrage of deadly tornadoes.

The combined private insured losses from the two hurricanes could reach $55 billion, according to risk management firm Moody’s RMS.

Immediately after disasters like these, property insurance is likely not top of mind as people secure their safety and basic needs, but insurance claims are part of the process of resetting. Many buy the policies in hope they can help protect them when disaster strikes. But oftentimes insurance doesn’t cover what the policy holder thinks it does — or thinks it should.

Rhoda Moehring, who turns 86 this month, says she doesn’t have a lot of faith that insurance companies will help her salvage the flooded rental homes she owns in the river town of Steinhatchee in Florida’s Big Bend.

“I usually get zip with these things,” Moehring said. ”‘Was I insured for that?’ ‘No, sorry, you weren’t.’ And it goes on and on. So I don’t put a whole lot of confidence in it.”

Moehring said she wasn’t sure about the details of her insurance policies and she’ll be relying on her son to help her navigate the claims process.

Here are some steps home and business owners should keep in mind when filing an insurance claim after a natural disaster.

After the immediate emergency response, the first thing a homeowner or business owner should do is call their insurance agent or broker. The deadline to file a claim is generally about 60 days from the date of loss.

There are different types of policies that insure against damage. In the initial call, first focus on thoroughly understanding your policy, including coverage limits, deductibles and exclusions, so that you can do a rough calculation of what is covered and what deductibles are at play to decide if you should file a claim, experts said.

Many policies have payouts in complicated percentage formulas. For example, if your roof is damaged, your policy may spell out different deductibles depending on the roofing material, the age of the roof and even the wind speed from the damage event, and the percentage paid out may be based on the insured value versus the cost of replacement, said Amy Bach, executive director of the consumer advocacy group United Policyholders.

Homeowners should weigh their options, as a minor payout may not be worth the long-term ding on your claims history. That’s especially true if you don’t have flood insurance, as the average home insurance policy covers wind damage but generally doesn’t cover flood damage.

While Helene was primarily a flood event, there may be disputes over what is or isn’t “wind-driven rain” from Milton. Hornstein said the line between wind and water is a thin but very clear line that technical experts can determine. Should there be a proverbial tie, the law favors the insurance company.

“If the house was simultaneously destroyed by flood and, concurrently (by) wind, it’s not covered by private insurance,” Hornstein said.

Business owners should also check to see if they have business income or business interruption insurance, which covers the loss of income and other costs like expenses, salaries, or rent when a business is forced to close.

To file a claim, keep track of and document everything. Before and after photos and videos are ideal to jog your memory of what's been lost and for proof to help bolster settlement claims. For business owners, keeping a record of costs that are incurred after the hurricane is important too.

“You may have evacuation costs, you may have business shut down interruption costs, you may have housing costs, you may have additional expenses that are unusual to your business," said Steve Powell, executive vice president of property and catastrophe for claims management firm Sedgwick.

Once a claim is filed, the insurance company’s adjuster will come to survey the damage, typically within a few days if conditions allow. Be responsive to adjusters and make sure they see (and document) the damage that you see.

While it’s easy to get frustrated, adjusters are likely stressed too, said Lawrence White, an economics professor at the NYU Stern School of Business.

“To the maximum extent possible, try not come across as angry. Try to come across as reasonable,” White said.

If there’s disagreement or concern about the accuracy or fairness of the adjuster’s report from the insurance company, property owners can consider hiring a public adjuster for a second opinion. Their own adjuster can then lead the negotiations with the insurance company. First, however, owners should be aware of the fees the public adjuster charges and check their references.

“The insurance companies have totally the upper hand and when there’s a public adjuster, it does level the playing field a lot for the consumer having someone who speaks insurance and speaks damage," Bach said.

Be aware of the deadlines for accepting a payment offer or filing an appeal with the insurance company.

Once you agree to an insurance payout, know that you can update the claim if more damage is discovered during the repairs though there may be deadlines for how long a homeowner has to reopen a claim.

If the back-and-forth with the insurance company drags on, you may consider hiring an attorney to reach a settlement as a last resort. A dispute that ends up in arbitration could stretch out for a year or more.

About 90% of all insurance claims are settled without escalating into a court fight, said Charles Nyce, a professor of risk management and insurance at Florida State University’s College of Business.

For those with little or no insurance, there are government programs that can assist. The application process is similar to insurance claims: Contact the agency, determine eligibility and file an application.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency offers grants for home repair or replacement for applicants who meet certain conditions. The Department of Housing and Urban Development also offers certain grants that are available for hurricane survivors.

The Small Business Administration offers low-interest loans to renters, homeowners, business owners, and non-profits that suffered losses due to disasters. However, on Tuesday that program ran out of money until its coffers are replenished by Congress — which doesn't reconvene until Nov. 12, after the election. The SBA said people should keep applying for loans, however.

For more details about these programs visit https://www.disasterassistance.gov.

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Associated Press reporter Kate Payne contributed from Tallahassee, Fla.

Property owners who preferred not to be named assess damage to their home and business, which bears orange notices calling for demolition, after the passage of Hurricane Milton, on Manasota Key in Englewood, Fla., Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

The question sounds so basic and friendly. But it’s actually loaded, as many mothers can attest. “Do you just love getting to be home with him all the time?” asks the younger, more put-together woman in the supermarket. “Must be so wonderful.”

Wonderful, of course — and sometimes brain-numbing and soul-draining too, some exhausted fulltime moms might reply. Especially if, like Amy Adams’ character in Marielle Heller's “Nightbitch," they’d left their prized art gallery job to this other woman.

And so Adams responds, twice, showing in this very opening scene exactly why her typically brave, brutally frank performance lifts this movie from an oddly uneven script to something unequivocally worth seeing.

First we get the honest answer, the one no one really gives until later in the shower: she feels “stuck inside of a prison of my own creation,” where she torments herself and ends up binge-eating Fig Newtons to keep from crying. She is angry all the time. Oh and, she has gotten dumber.

Then we rewind and director-writer Heller has Adams give her real answer: “I do, I love it! I love being a Mom.”

There we are, two minutes and 13 seconds into “Nightbitch” and you may already find yourself wowed by Adams. If not, just wait until her Mother is sitting at a chic restaurant with a bunch of colleagues from the art world, and her fangs come out.

And we don’t mean figuratively. We mean literally.

Let’s go back to the beginning, shall we?

“Nightbitch” is based on the 2021 novel by Rachel Yoder, a feminist fable that the author has said came from her own malaise when pausing work for child-rearing.

She sets her tale in an unidentified suburb of an unidentified city. Mother (characters all have generic names), formerly an admired installation artist, spends her weekdays alone with her adorable, blond 2-year old Son. Husband has a job that seems to bring him home only on weekends.

The early scenes depicting Mother’s life are tight and impactful, a contrast to the confused havoc that will come toward the end of the film. Life revolves around the playground and the home, with occasional trips to storytime at the library where she notes, in narration, that she has no interest in the company of other moms — why should they be friends just because they're moms?

In fact, Mother lives in solitude, and director Heller does a nice job illustrating how that feels. You can almost feel the weight of the afternoon coming around, at this comfortable but hardly ostentatious home, when it’s too early for dinner and you’ve done all the activities already and you wonder if you can make it through the day.

Then things start to get weird. In the bathroom mirror, Mother starts noticing things. Her teeth are getting sharper. There’s something weird coming out of an apparent cyst at the bottom of her spine. She finds extra nipples. And that’s before she starts eating rare meat. (Also, if you love cats, you may want to close your eyes at one point.)

Somehow Adams, who also produces here, makes these things seem, if not quite natural, then logical. What's happening is that Mother’s frustration is becoming ferocious. Dangerously ferocious. But also — empowering. At night, or so she thinks, she is a wild dog.

Aspects of the film work wonderfully. Mother’s relationship with Son (twins Arleigh and Emmett Snowden) is lovely, largely due to a decision to let the young boys talk freely, with the adult actors reacting to their words. It lends a grounding realism to a film that quickly veers surreal.

Less successful is the relationship between Mother and Husband (Scoot McNairy), which takes on too much importance as the film goes on, in a baffling way. (Also, just asking, has anyone in this movie ever heard of a babysitter?)

More importantly, a story that posits itself on such a tantalizing idea — that by transforming into a dog, Mother discovers her true nature and power — resorts late in the game to a safer story about a marriage that never seemed appealing enough for us to care about anyway. It doesn't help that it's hard to grasp the distracting subplot about Mother’s own mother.

None of this takes away from the strength of Adams’ performance. You believe her love for her child as much as you believe her resentment for what he is taking away from her. And Adams can make almost any line work, including one about a walnut. But we digress.

It’s an irony that for reasons of storytelling, characters have generic names — because Adams is such a singular and particular talent. The journey she embarks upon is bizarre indeed, but you won’t regret taking it with her.

“Nightbitch,” a Searchlight Pictures release, has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association “for language and some sexuality. “ Running time: 98 minutes. Two stars out of four.

This image released by Searchlight Pictures shows Amy Adams, left, and Scoot McNairy in a scene from "Nightbitch." (Anne Marie Fox/Searchlight Pictures via AP)

This image released by Searchlight Pictures shows Amy Adams in a scene from "Nightbitch." (Anne Marie Fox/Searchlight Pictures via AP)

This image released by Searchlight Pictures shows Amy Adams in a scene from "Nightbitch." (Anne Marie Fox/Searchlight Pictures via AP)

This image released by Searchlight Pictures shows Amy Adams in a scene from "Nightbitch." (Searchlight Pictures via AP)

This image released by Searchlight Pictures shows Amy Adams in a scene from "Nightbitch." (Searchlight Pictures via AP)