Homeowners urged to prepare for crises

Preventive steps can minimize disasters' damageBy EILEEN ALT POWELL, Associated Press
Posted Thursday, November 1, 2007Read Comments-->
Wildfires that destroyed more than 500,000 acres in California last month devastated homeowners lacking enough insurance to cover the damage. AP file 11/01/2007 -->
NEW YORK -- The televised images of homes collapsing in wind-driven wildfires in California should serve as a reminder that disasters can happen just about anywhere in the United States and that homeowners need to be prepared.
But many aren't, experts say.
"When we go into areas to do disaster investigations with our engineers, we find people didn't think it would happen to them or they had put any preventative steps on their to-do list for next year," said Wendy Rose, spokeswoman for the insurance industry-funded Institute for Business & Home Safety in Tampa, Fla.
"It's true whether you're talking about wildfires or flooding or hurricanes," she said, adding that there can be major financial consequences for the unprepared.
The California wildfires, fed by drought and fierce, dry winds, forced half a million people to flee their communities, burned more than 500,000 acres and destroyed some 2,000 houses. Insured losses could exceed $1 billion, according to risk assessment firms.
Families need to evaluate their insurance coverage and think about the physical changes they may need to make to their home and surroundings to keep them safe.
Consumers need to buy special insurance policies for floods and earthquakes, but fire and smoke damage are covered under standard homeowners, renters and business insurance policies, said Jeanne M. Salvatore of the Insurance Information Institute in New York. Fire damage also is covered by the comprehensive section of auto insurance policies, she said. But many people fail to get enough coverage, she said.
"Pick up the phone and call your insurance agent and ask the key question, 'Do I have enough insurance to completely rebuild my home if it burned to the ground?' " Salvatore said. If the answer is "no," the homeowner may need to buy more.
She said the contents typically are insured for 50 percent to 70 percent of the value of the home.
"You can buy more, especially if you have items like antiques or collections, and the best way to determine that is to do a home inventory," Salvatore said.
George Yates, an insurance agent in East Hampton, N.Y., and a member of the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of New York, said consumers need to be aware there are limits on payouts on some policies -- which may mean there's not enough money to cover reconstruction if there has been a major disaster.
"In most cases, the most insurance companies are going to pay is 125 percent of whatever they're insuring," he said. So someone with so-called extended replacement coverage on a $200,000 house might qualify for a maximum of $250,000.
"After a natural disaster, the costs of labor and materials can surge," he warned. "And there may not be enough there for people to be fully reimbursed."
Rose of the Institute for Business & Home Safety said homeowners also should do what they can to make their homes physically safe.
To try to minimize the threat of wildfires, "roll up your sleeves and do some work in your yard -- clear away brush, branches and other things that are too close to your house or hanging over your house," she said.