In the wake of Hurricane Florence, many home and business owners have struggled to deal with the damage wrought on their homes, properties, and businesses. Recovery is a long, expensive, and arduous process, made even more difficult by the complexities of the insurance process.

In order to make sure that you receive the compensation you are due for damage caused by Hurricane Florence or Hurricane Michael, you can get help from experienced insurance claim attorneys.

Hurricane Florence: The Aftermath

Even now, six months after the historic storm that broke at least 28 flood records in the Carolinas, many residents of the affected area are still attempting to recover.

Businesses, too, have been regrouping for months. Karen Willis Amspacher, the executive director of the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum & Heritage Center, told WUNC that the museum suffered from around $3.5 million dollars in damages. Not all of these damages were the direct result of the winds. “We had 10 days of no power, and mold took us. Eighty-five percent of our sheetrock is gone. So that’s where we’ve been since mid-November,” Amspacher said.

Despite the impact of Hurricane Florence, Amspacher says that she and her family are not leaving the area. “And that’s hard for other people to understand. But it’s home, and when everything you’ve lived for is invested in that place, it’s really hard to just pick it up and go somewhere else. It’s just not in my DNA,” she said.

Unfortunately, recovery can be an extremely long-term process. Jessica Whitehead, a coastal communities hazards adaptation specialist with North Carolina Sea Grant, told WUNC that “[w]hen we look at places like New York and New Jersey and Hurricane Sandy in 2012, there are places that are still recovering. We’re almost 15 years out from Hurricane Katrina, and we can look back at places that took 10 years to recover—and some places that have never recovered,” Whitehead said.

Hurricane Insurance Claims

Though insurance policies vary widely, most basic home insurance plans include coverage for your home, garage, personal property, alternate living expenses, and business interruption losses.

Some types of damage are not covered by homeowners insurance, however. For instance, flood damage from a hurricane is a separate matter not included in homeowners insurance, though separate flood insurance is available.

If some of the damage was caused by rain that accessed your home because of wind damage, your home insurance policy might be able to provide some compensation for this damage. Additionally, if a storm has been declared a national disaster, federal funds may be available to help with flood damage.

After devastating hurricanes like Florence and Michael, affecting countless homes, properties, and businesses, many people may feel lost or adrift, unsure how to proceed with complicated insurance claims as they attempt to salvage what they can.

These issues are complicated by a number of individual variables, such as the type of policy you have, policy limits, living expenses, repair costs, and more.

In order to make sure that you are properly compensated for damage caused by Hurricane Florence or Hurricane Michael, talking to an experienced insurance claim attorney can help. Even if you have already been compensated for some of your damages, you may still be able to get additional money if it is found you were not paid in full.