The state has a special hotline (617) 521-7777 for insurance complaints.
David W. Valentine, right, a property field trainer with The Travelers Companies, points out damage to a Rosella Street home as homeowner Sean T. Wylie looks on.SPRINGFIELD – Insurance adjuster David W. Valentine disappeared up through the closet and into the attic crawl space of 29 Rosella St. in the hard-hit East Forest Park neighborhood.
“I can hear his tape measure. That means he’s still alive,” joked homeowner Sean T. Wylie.
A few minutes later Valentine descended flashlight in hand. The prognosis was not good.
“You have at least one cracked rafter that I can see,” Valentine, a property field trainer with The Travelers Cos. in Hartford said. “Again, with more light I might be able to see more.”
He’ll only visit two or three homes Friday. he said it takes hours to navigate storm-clogged roads and he likes to spend a lot of time with each homeowner. Another Travelers adjuster worked across the street while Valentine met with Wylie.
That splintered rafter meant that Valentine’s original guess that Wylie’s home had only suffered $5,000 to $10,000 in damage probably was too low.
“But at least everyone in the family is OK,” Valentine said. “We can take care of sticks. That’s all this is: sticks.”
Wednesday’s tornado took an oak tree more than four feet around at its base and snapped it in two, dropping the top half across 29 Rosella Street, a Cape about halfway down this cul-de-sac off Island Pond Road.
It’s one of countless damaged homes in the region and Valentine is one of hundreds of insurance adjusters who have fanned out across the impacted areas toting clipboards, flashlights, digital cameras, flashlights and flooding step ladders.
Plymouth Rock Assurance deployed mobile car-claims specialists and opened a drive-in center appraisal center in West Springfield.
The Travelers’ Valentine said he’d write a check to Wylie Friday to cover Wylie’s immediate living expenses.
“I tell people to use it for whatever you need, just give me receipts for what you buy,” he said.
On a conference call with area chambers of commerce Friday, Barbara T. Anthony, undersecretary of the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation asked if anyone has either had trouble filing an insurance claim or has heard of anyone who is unable to file a damage claim.
She got no response. But she expects problems to arise as more homeowners get in touch with insurers and claims process, which can be contentious, move forward.
The state has a special hotline (617) 521-7777 for insurance complaints.
Anthony also warned people not to fall prey to out-of-state or unlicensed contractors.
Consumers can verify contractor licenses by calling 1 (888) 283-3757 or check www.mass.gov/consumer.
Valentine lives in Dartmouth and normally works out of Worcester responding to floods and hurricanes. The recent Alabama tornado was his first twister, he’d spent a week in Birmingham before getting called home to respond to Springfield.
No matter the disaster, he said his first step is to always make sure the family in the home is OK. Next, he makes sure the building is still squarely on its foundation. Walls that are bowed out in the middle are telltale signs that there is structural damage within.
“Sometimes it is just too dangerous to do much more. I don’t want to walk under the tree,” Valentine said. “I almost always have to come back.”
In the meantime Wylie is staying with friends. He had the day off work Friday because hi s employer, Lenox American Saw in East Longmeadow, didn’t have power.
“It’s just going to be a lot of detail, cleaning up, hiring contractors then doing more cleaning,” he said. “I’m sure there will be a lot of paperwork.”