Top 4 Professionals to Call After a Tornado
If you live in an area that sees its fair share of tornados each year, putting together your disaster preparedness kit is critical. In addition to all the normal survival items your kit should include, remember to create a list of professionals to call after a tornado. This will help to reduce the stress and worry that indecision in an emergency can cause.
Insurance Company
As soon as you’ve ensured the safety of your family and friends, your first call should be to your insurance company to report the damage to your home. While you won’t get a say in which claims adjuster your insurer will assign to your case, be sure to keep your agent’s contact information in your disaster kit. A call to your agent when your adjuster isn’t returning your calls in a timely manner can help to expedite the process when you’re dealing with certain companies.
General Contractor
In many cases, your home will take a lot of random damage that can include broken windows, destroyed fences and dented exterior HVAC equipment. Rather than trying to work with a different person for each individual issue with your home, a general contractor will become your point of contact and oversee all the different tradesmen it may take to repair the damage to your home. Also, having your general contractor available when your claims adjustor walks the property can help ensure all the damage is accurately reported in your insurance claim.
Roofing Contractor
Even if your home isn’t hit directly by the tornado, the storm system could still turn your roof into a dented mess if high winds and hail were part of the storm. While some general contractors have the necessary credentials to handle roofing repairs in your state, many do not. Be sure to add the contact information for at least one reputable roofing contractor in your area to your disaster kit so that you’ll have the peace of mind that someone qualified to work on your roof will be out to inspect and repair any damage.
Water Removal Company
Unfortunately, many home insurance policies do not cover the interior water damage that can occur during strong storms with heavy rainfall. Since the best way to minimize water damage is to get the water out as quickly as possible, be sure your tornado disaster kit has the number for a water removal company. In many cases, these companies will have 24-hour emergency numbers you can call so that you won’t have to wait until regular business hours to start draining the standing water out of your home. Depending on the amount of water coming into your home and how quickly they can start the water removal and drying processes, you may be able to save yourself quite a bit of money on water damage repairs.