Even before the holiday season arrived, six Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance employees had already given generous gifts of their time and expertise to assist folks in hurricane-ravaged Florida. The Sunshine State was overwhelmed with nearly two million claims statewide due to the devastation of multiple hurricanes this past fall. Florida Farm Bureau sent a request for assistance to American Agricultural Insurance Company (American Ag), a company which many Farm Bureau states look to for reinsurance, risk management services and claims coordination during disaster. American Ag asked Farm Bureau companies, including Indiana Farm Bureau, to send claims personnel to help.

Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance sent two CAT (catastrophe) teams to assist Florida Farm Bureau Insurance and its policyholders. The first team consisted of Chris Clevenger (Vigo County), John Ginda (Tippecanoe County), Fred Grossman (Whitley County) and Greg McCammon (Delaware County). They spent two weeks processing and adjusting claims in Florida, working from sunrise to sunset, seven days per week, from September 24 to October 8. The second CAT team of Billy Fulk (Vigo County) and David Girton (Elkhart County), arrived in Florida on October 9, and spent the next two weeks, including weekends, providing claims assistance for up to 15 hours per day. The six CAT claims representatives were glad to help, despite working long hours and missing their families and lives at home in Indiana.

Farm Bureau Insurance companies are different from national insurance companies in that each Farm Bureau is a separate company doing business only in its respective state(s). While Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance provides property and casualty coverage only in Indiana, and Florida Farm Bureau Insurance writes policies only in Florida, both companies are part of an extended "Farm Bureau Family" that can offer help to one another when needed. CAT teams with national companies expect to move from one catastrophe to another throughout the nation, but Farm Bureau personnel volunteer to assist in other states. These volunteers take time away from their own personal and professional responsibilities in order to help other Farm Bureau companies and their policyholders in a time of crisis. A request for assistance usually follows a widespread catastrophe such as Florida experienced with the recent hurricanes.

The Indiana teams drove to Florida with appropriate disaster clothing, wooden extension ladders for climbing roofs, cell phones, and laptops loaded with Xactimate, a program used to estimate homeowner damage. Both teams were based at the CAT center in Pace, Florida, about 40 miles east of where Hurricane Ivan struck. The center serviced many of the surrounding areas of the Florida Panhandle so the team traveled far and wide on a daily basis. Although Pace was not hit as hard as other parts of Florida, over half of the homes in the region, a mix of rural and suburban areas, were damaged, some quite severely.

The teams saw home after home with crumbling exteriors, missing aluminum siding, tarps on the roofs, and personal belongings strewn about the lawns and roads. Many properties were in worse shape than expected, as families who had evacuated realized upon returning to their homes. In coastal areas, sand that had been blown into drifts covering the streets was plowed to the sides of the roads into big piles just like snow in the Midwest. Indiana CAT team member Fred Grossman recalls seeing boats and cabin cruisers that had been lifted up by the massive hurricane surge and placed down into the woods among the pine trees. In other wooded areas, 100 percent of the large trees were knocked down as if a giant land roller had crushed them flat.

Very few homes or businesses had working telephones following the hurricanes, cell phone reception was poor in rural areas, and some cell towers were damaged, all of which created a huge challenge for CAT teams trying to contact policyholders. In addition, with roads closed due to fallen power lines, trees, and other items dumped in unusual places, CAT team members sometimes got lost trying to find the homes of the people they were attempting to help. Fred Grossman has many memories about the challenges and rewards of CAT duty in Florida. "I ended up in Alabama on some orange-colored dirt road at 10 o'clock at night, not knowing even (in) what direction I was heading or where I was." After a two-hour drive, he finally made it back to the Florida town he was trying to find. "Some insureds offered to put me up at their residences to work the claims out in that area. If I'd had my printer and extra clothing, I surely would have taken them up on it. People really appreciated our efforts, so I got some fantastic Southern meals when I was there."

Rick Ainsworth, Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance Director, Property & Casualty, says, "It was hard work, but it was good experience for handling major damage immediately. The residents of Florida were very grateful to see real people coming to help them out." Also, it's important to remember that while the Indiana claims representatives who volunteered to work in Florida were working above and beyond their usual job efforts because of the unique circumstances, their colleagues back home in Indiana were working extra hard as well, so that the needs of Indiana Farm Bureau insureds and claimants would not be compromised by having fewer staffers on hand.

Indiana CAT team member Greg McCammon recalls that getting to Pace and working to help the residents was much more difficult than he'd imagined. "I had no idea what it would truly be like until I got down there. There is no way to prepare yourself for working 15 hours a day in this kind of environment." It was difficult for the teams to stay focused with so much paperwork and so many homes to visit each day. However, the Indiana teams knew they were on temporary duty. After their "tour," they returned to their homes, their families and their lives in Indiana. Knowing that Florida residents and their local claims adjusters would still be dealing with the situation for the next several months helped keep things in perspective for the Indiana helpers when they were tired and exhausted.

"It was one of the most rewarding things I have done in my life. It was wonderful to know we were there to help these people restore their lives to as much normalcy as possible. The challenges there also have helped me since returning to handling claims back here in Indiana. " McCammon summed up the experience, "You realize how simple our daily lives can be and how fortunate we really are."