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The following article was published in the Charleston Post & Courier's Business Major, a featured monthly column in the Business Review Section on October 4, 1999. De-stressing business of hurricane repairsBy DOROTHY P. MOORE Special to the Post and Courier Some findings from research conducted after Hurricane Hugo are relevant to the Hurricane Floyd experience. Nine months after Hurricane Hugo we surveyed Sullivan's Island residents and property owners. The storm had been unexpected and extremely stressful. The experience had been more intense than major life events such as marriage or the birth or death of a family member, people reported. While a different type of experience and, except for an unfortunate few, far less intense, people can be expected to remember the mandated evacuation for Hurricane Floyd for some time to come. Unlike other Lowcountry residents, people living on the barrier islands had not been allowed to return to their homes after Hugo to make temporary repairs to protect property. The delay and bad weather multiplied losses and recovery problems. If the local government did not find a way to address problems of post-hurricane recovery, we found, there was some reason to question how many people would respond to future hurricane warnings. As one resident wrote, "I will never evacuate again, and I will have ammunition." There is much to commend in the response of the Sullivan's Island Township and the other local governments to the Hugo learning experience. In the ten years since, authorities developed detailed emergency management plans, pushed construction of the long-needed evacuation bridge, constructed storm-resistant command centers, and improved disaster coordination at all levels. They also worked hard to open better pre- and post-storm communications channels between government and citizens. They held meetings to demonstrate that problems had been corrected and reassured residents they would be allowed quick access to their property if they had to evacuate. The payoff showed in the islands' response to the Hurricane Floyd warnings. Confident they would be able to return home after a storm, people heeded the warnings and left. There were positive stress effects. After Hugo, residents were far more concerned with pre-storm preparations, family and personal safety and exit routes, and protection of property. With one hurricane behind them, apprehensions of the damage another could do would surface quickly, we discovered. The feelings were universal, as the large-scale and rapid exodus in face of an anticipated strike of Hurricane Floyd showed. There is some very good news here for officials dealing with the gridlock on I-26 and other Floyd-related issues. Prompt development of well-laid out plans to get people away from the coast quickly and safely can be expected to dissipate the current anger. Despite all the problems people experienced during Floyd, there is no reason to believe the response will be any less rapid or inclusive in the face of clear warnings of imminent danger in the future, provided the evacuation problems are resolved. Even the people who now say, "I will never evacuate again!" will do so - but only after they have the opportunity to inspect the new plans for themselves and develop their own sense of trust in the system. Insurance was a major problem after Hugo. From the perspective of the insurance companies, the mobilization of some 3,600 claims adjusters to deal with some 340,000 South Carolina claims in relatively short order represented the industry's "finest hour." From the perspective of individual policyholders, what we found was far less reassuring. We assessed the performance of the 32 major insurance carriers involved in Sullivan's Island claims against a model of corporate efficiency. Though none of the carriers fell into the bottom category, Minimum Effort, which means just what it says, neither did any company attain World Class Proficiency. With two exceptions, all insurance companies fell into the Journeyman Efficiency group, which means they more or less kept up with their competitors. The two that stood out registered Distinctive Competency, a level of company performance recognizably higher than all the others. Individual insurance company experiences ranged from the few that expressed complete satisfaction downward. In general, people with high levels of property damage and loss or large uninsured losses were confronted by more problems, had to battle harder to obtain settlements they thought were fair, and reported less satisfaction with the treatment they received. A majority in this group (52.6%) had to threaten to get an attorney, contact the state insurance commission, or contact the media to reach a settlement, and slightly more than four out of every ten (40.8%) actually did so. One of the most compelling insurance statistics is also the simplest; after the hurricane, one policyholder in every three changed insurance companies. There are some important lessons to be learned.
They kept receipts for major purchases and inventoried possessions regularly, often photographing or videotaping them. When the storm approached, they protected their property by boarding up windows or covering possessions with plastic. Some even photographed their last minute efforts. And they protected all this information by either storing it in a safe place beforehand or taking it with them when they evacuated. The three-year, post-Hugo study (which was supported by funds from The Citadel Development Foundation) was exhaustive. The review above only skims the surface. For additional information and a list of publications, you may contact my co-author, Jamie W. Moore, a Professor of History at The Citadel, or me by electronic mail at moorej@citadel.edu or moored@citadel.edu. For Questions/Comments about this site, contact moored@citadel.edu. Site designed by Jackye Cocoros. |