Agents Weigh in on Gustav

In response to e-mailed inquiries from Insurance Journal, a number of Louisiana-based insurance operations reported they had prepared for Hurricane Gustav. Some had evacuated; most had recovery plans in place.

Thomas J. McMahon, Jr., president of New Orleans-based Eustis Insurance & Benefits Inc., said his firm evacuated but employees were in their offices 48 hours after the storm. Eustis also has offices in Baton Rouge and Mandeville. “Our CAT plan that saw us [through] Katrina did so again in Gustav. Thanks for the concern,” McMahon said.

Gladys Broussard, a producer with Waguespack & Associates, wrote shortly after the storm: “I am producer located in Baton Rouge. Our city, the largest in Louisiana since Katrina, is now 95 percent without power. Roads are not passable today. Phone lines down or jammed with calls. I have not been able to get through to our agency located in Gonzales, 25 miles away. We did have a plan in place for contacting clients and staff. All are safe.”

Anderson Baker, president of Gillis, Ellis & Baker Inc., in New Orleans, said the agency’s office is across the street from the Superdome and all 40 employees evacuated. “We all went different directions,” Baker wrote. “Some to the Florida beaches to make a family vacation out of it. Some made reservations in Hattiesburg, Memphis, and Birmingham. Some just drove north.”

He said the agency’s phone system rolls over to an outside service so that filing of claims is seamless for GEB clients. During Hurricane Katrina, Gillis, Ellis & Baker relied on Agility Recovery Solutions as part of its disaster recovery plan. “They were alerted for Gustav, but it looks like we will not have to activate it,” Baker wrote.

Topics Agencies