Bloomington, Illinois, September 14, 2008 –State Farm, the largest insurer of homes and autos on the Gulf Coast and the nation has initiated Catastrophe Services operations and is already helping customers affected by Hurricane Ike. Saturday, State Farm received 14,000 calls from customers needing assistance. To handle the expected increase in calls from customers, an additional 12 call centers have been set up around the country with nearly 300 trained representatives ready to begin the claims process.
“Our first priority is the safety and well-being of our customers,” said Assistant Vice-President Claims Jim Damm. “Once it is safe do so, customers should inspect their homes or businesses and then contact their agent or call 1-800-SF-CLAIM to begin the claims process,” said Damm.
About 1,100 agents, agents’ staff, and claim employees already living and working in the impacted areas are already servicing thousands of policyholders.
In addition, State Farm’s Catastrophe Team, a dedicated, mobile workforce of experienced catastrophe claim representatives has been activated and is moving into the affected areas. Catastrophe Services has identified a significant number of Catastrophe Team members for deployment directly into the impacted areas. These individuals will arrive in their assigned location when conditions clear to begin the claim handling process upon their arrival.
The State Farm Catastrophe Team also has the advantage of a fleet of mobile claim handling facilities innovatively designed to support the claims handling process. These vehicles are now moving toward the affected areas in Texas. Once positioned in five strategic locations, each vehicle allows State Farm claims representatives to begin the claims process for our customers in an immediate way.
The mobilization of resources for victims of Hurricane Ike will not diminish the progress made toward helping victims of Hurricane Gustav which struck Louisiana and east Texas, two weeks ago. Agents, claims and catastrophe representatives have already made significant progress with 50,000 claims the company has received following Gustav.
For additional information about the storm and State Farm’s response, visit statefarm.com
For questions or more information, contact Jeff McCollum , Relaciones Públicas, al (309) 766-0307.
State Farm® insures more cars and homes than any other insurer in the U.S. and is also a leading insurer in Canada. State Farm's 17,000 agents and 68,000 employees serve more than 78 million auto, fire, life and health policies in the United States and Canada, and more than 1.9 million bank accounts. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company is the parent of the State Farm family of companies. State Farm is ranked No. 32 on the Fortune 500 list of largest companies. For more information, please visit statefarm.com® or in Canada statefarm.ca®.