Tallahassee, Atlanta dodges a bullet, but thousands of claims are expected

Hundreds of damage adjusters were scheduled to move to Florida, Georgia and parts of the western Carolinas Friday morning as Hurricane Helene brought powerful storm surges and 140 mph winds to a region that has seen three hurricanes in a year.

Overall wind damage from Helene may be significantly less than feared after the eyewall moved east of the population centers of Tallahassee and Atlanta, shielding those cities from the strongest winds. Still, adjustment firms expected thousands of claims from property owners. They began sending teams to command centers across the region by Thursday and were preparing independent flood adjusters.

“Get in touch with people, set up your inspections, then do the actual inspections,” said Curtis Pilot with Pilot Catastrophe Services, one of the largest claims adjustment firms, in a Zoom meeting with more than 300 adjusters Thursday night.

Insurance carriers also planned to set up insurance villages and claims centers in some of the worst-hit areas near the Big Bend portion of Florida, insurance agents said.

“We bypassed a big one,” said Larry Roberts, an insurance agent at McGinniss Himmel Insurance Agency in Tallahassee. “We have our pines here and we see some trees on the houses, but for the most part, we’ve been very lucky.”

The storm made landfall around 11 p.m. Thursday near the mouth of the Aucilla River, southeast of Tallahassee, the Associated Press and other news outlets reported. The eye was just 20 miles from where Hurricane Idalia made landfall in August 2023 and about 50 miles from Steinhatchee, Florida, where the center of Hurricane Debby made landfall last month.

In Steinhatchee, several homes and mobile homes were floated off their foundations as waters rose overnight and caused some of the worst flooding in years, CNN reported.

Near Branford, Fla., about 80 miles southeast of Tallahassee, where some of the strongest winds were felt, producer Jeff Rush said he heard from several policyholders. One farmer lost four birdhouses that had been converted into barns, said Rush, who is part of the Odiorne Insurance Agency. Another customer saw his carport blown down by the winds.

“There’s pretty little damage around here,” Rush said.

The area was hit a little over a year ago by Idalia, and residents and agents are feeling a little battered and battered.

“I guess we’re the new hurricane lane,” Rush said.

At least five deaths have been attributed to Helena. In south Georgia, two people were killed when a possible tornado struck a mobile home Thursday night in Wheeler County, the AP reported. Wheeler County is approximately 70 miles southeast of Macon, Georgia.

The storm’s eastern wall passed near Valdosta, Georgia, a city of about 55,000, the AP reported. But storms and flooding were seen as far south as Naples, Florida, which suffered some damage from Hurricane Ian in 2022; and as far north as the Appalachians.

In Atlanta, at least 25 people were rescued from flooding, CNN noted. However, wind damage was minimal as the storm remained east of the metropolis. Near Tampa, emergency crews performed more than 100 water rescues in the area due to the powerful storm surge, officials said.

About 30,000 homes and businesses in the Carolinas lost power, and more than 1.2 million were without power in Florida, along with another 190,000 in Georgia and, poweroutage.us reported.

Some early reports had warned that the latest cyclone could be another major test for Florida’s property insurance industry, with insured losses estimated to be as much as $6 billion. But Florida’s governor and Mark Friedlander of the Insurance Information Institute said the industry is recovering and prepared to meet the costs, according to news reports.

“We’re very fortunate,” said Lisa Miller, a former Florida deputy insurance commissioner who lives in Tallahassee. She noted that the city was expected to see extensive wind damage from Helene, but managed to escape the worst of it as the storm moved east.

Top photo: Tree damage in Tallahassee. (Larry Roberts with McGinniss Himmel Insurance Agency)

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