I tried my mother’s phone dozens of times during the hours following the Fort Worth tornadoes. The cryptic message I had gotten from her assured me she was okay, but I wasn’t sure about her house and car. Still not able to get through, I heard news reports of softball-size hail in her area.

I was terribly disheartened. Not because she might lose a windshield. But because three months earlier she had moved her coverage from my agent in Austin to a direct writer up in Fort Worth. I hadn’t felt it was that big a deal at the time. But at that moment, I did. Patrick, my agent, would take care of my mom.

Turns out it didn’t matter. The pea-sized hail at her house did no damage. But gut-checks like those remind me of the important place an independent agent/advocate play in our system.

Another reminder came the next morning, when I began writing about those same tornadoes. I had the pleasure of talking to Mary Russell with Higginbotham & Associates in Fort Worth. I had tried several other insurance entities downtown—Gainsco, INSpire, the Brants Co.—to no avail, for obvious reasons. When I stumbled across Mary at Higginbotham’s I wasn’t expecting much. Maybe a cursory run down of what they were doing. But Mary, claims manager, knew everything and was willing to share it.

I found it interesting that she started her story in the minutes following the tornado, after a window in their office blew out and the electricity disappeared. Instead of it being a personal story (which, if I were in a tornado, it would be), it was a claims manager story. There were several of them in the office. By candlelight, their computer technician was able to take a car battery (a very strong SUV battery) and supply juice for their server until a generator could be found.

With their server up, they began the claims process, checking in on customers they knew were in the tornado’s path and notifying insurance companies that a flood of claims were on their way. Several insureds (and concerned customers) dropped by their offices that evening. They were there to either file a claim or lend a hand, whichever was needed. Mary and company left after midnight that night.

I didn’t ask what time she came back in the morning, but I’m sure it was early.

One of the other things Higginbotham & Associates did during the hours following the storm was to offer a portion of their offices and phone systems to the Brants Co., a competitor of theirs in Fort Worth that was not so lucky. Their building, the Cash America Building, was one of those you saw on t.v. a lot—windows missing, cars piled up in the parking lot.

I found it reassuring that the agencies were in this together.

This issue isn’t about catastrophe coverage. It’s very difficult to plan an editorial calendar around things that strike and disappear in minutes. There will be more talk about catastrophes soon, though, as the numbers have just recently been released showing Texas, once again, boasts the highest premiums for homeowners coverage in the nation. By far. It’s no surprise, really. Though direct tornado hits to downtown areas are rare, the tornadoes themselves are not. Or the deadly, destructive hail that comes with it.

Topics Catastrophe