Business : Windy City: Vinton insurance professional discusses impact of July 11 storm

Despite the damage of the July 11 storm, insurance pros found area residents ready to rebuild.

At 6 a.m. Monday, July 11, every street in Vinton was covered with trees and the entire town was without electricity. The straight-line winds that struck Vinton that morning were estimated to have speeds between 110 and 130 mph, and the winds were sustained for 12 long minutes. As the wind died down no one fully understood the extent of the damage or could know the next several months would be spent removing hundreds of damaged trees, clearing city streets, rebuilding power lines, and repairing rooftops.

 Even now, at the end of 2011, visitors to Vinton will see some damaged structures waiting for busy contractors to repair. Some roofs are still covered with tarps, gutters are dangling, and in some cases, entire buildings still await reconstruction.

 John Yundt, Vice-President and Co-Owner of Wilson-Hite Insurance and his wife, Lynn, live North of Vinton, just far enough out of town to escape the brunt of the July 11th wind storm that devastated the community. John got a call from Lynn as she drove to the Fifth Street Koffee Haus, a business Lynn operates with her daughter, Autumn and son, Nick. Lynn told John the roof of the Koffee Haus was gone and water was pouring down the inside of the west wall. John’s mind raced to the hundreds of customers of Wilson-Hite Insurance.

“The closer I got to town the more it seemed as though I was entering the Twilight Zone. It was just mind-blowing” he recalls.

 Through the day John would be met with tears and hugs at the homes of many customers. But he said his clients inspired him with their toughness in the midst of the devastating losses.

“Their attitude was, ‘Well, what do we need to do next?’ he said. And as they did in 2008 during the flood, Vinton residents responded to the storm damage by immediately helping themselves, and each other.

 While Lynn dealt with damage at the Koffee Haus, John arrived at Wilson-Hite Insurance to find his staff, almost all of whom had sustained damage to their own homes, at work helping customers. The employees had set up a generator and were able to get one computer up and running along with one old rotary phone. One employee was submitting claims via the computer, one was answering the phone that never stopped ringing, as another helped the walk-ins. The rest were out on-site surveying damage and answering questions, a difficult job that involved dodging power lines, scrambling over downed trees, and trying to find open streets.

“In those first hours everyone had a lot to deal with and yet most people found out that when they thought they had it bad, all they needed to do was look around and their neighbor had it a lot worse. It really put things in perspective in a hurry.”

 John, who has been vice-president and co-owner at Wilson-Hite Insurance since 1998, said they quickly realized “pretty much everybody” had been affected by the storm and were on the phone with the insurance companies.

“Never in all these years has something affected nearly all of our customers at the same time. We were contacting all our insurance companies to get catastrophic loss teams mobilized and on the way. While we were waiting for them to arrive in town we authorized immediate preventive repairs,” said John.

 Several Wilson-Hite clients live near the Iowa Braille School, which was badly damaged in the storm, Barb Smith is one of them. The Smiths awakened to hear the storm and immediately started making their way to their basement. On the way they heard a window blow-out and their daughter saw the roof of the garage begin to blow away.

 Customers Marlyn and Kathryn Duncan had two houses and a horse trailer damaged by the storm. William and Deb Martin had significant damage to their roof. Karen and Denny Miller had property damage and a personal injury claim. All of them agreed that Wilson-Hite was exceptional in their responsiveness.

 In the five months since the devastating storm, Wilson-Hite Insurance has received many thank you’s from their clients. “I just thought I should send them a note,” said Barb Smith. “I can’t say enough good things about them. They were very efficient,” says Barb of the adjusters and the Wilson-Hite staff. “They quickly got everything in motion.”

 Marlyn Duncan said he thought the adjusters were “very kind and very fair.” Kathryn added that they didn’t make her feel like she was trying to make a buck. “We felt very good talking to them.” The couple said the adjusters were very thorough and it wasn’t long before they received a check for the repairs.

  “They were very prompt with paying, “ said Deb Martin. “I know it varies with different companies, but we were really pleased with how efficient and prompt they were. And we thought their estimates were quite fair.”

 Karen and Denny Miller agree. “If it weren’t for John, the Wilson-Hite staff, and the adjusters, we would be like other families who had to wait for help from their insurance company,” said Karen. “The Wilson-Hite staff were kind and understanding, and the adjusters were out quickly. We had one personal injury, the adjuster came to our home, and we had the issue settled immediately. Without all their help it could have taken months to return to normal. Thank you’s to John, his staff, and the adjusters for their hard work and their commitment to helping us.”

 Wilson-Hite Insurance has four agents- co-owner/President Don Weideman, co-owner/Vice President John Yundt, Charlie Garwood and Dick McKenna. In addition to the agents, they have dedicated customer service support by Tressa Walton, Colette McKenna, and Lori Smith who are also licensed. Hartz insurance in Newhall is also a branch of Wilson-Hite Insurance.

 Yundt says he hopes there won’t be another day like July 11th, 2011, but through the experience he really learned what the agency is capable of doing, how dedicated the Wilson-Hite staff is, and what an amazingly resilient community Wilson-Hite serves.

 “We write policies to insure against loss of property, auto coverage, health, and life insurance. There are times when customers look at us with an expression that says, ‘Do you really think I need that coverage?’, yet our role is to make certain they’re adequately protected if some unusual catastrophe were to come along. On the 11th of July we were so thankful that the coverage we provided helped in every category, and even more thankful we didn’t file more claims due to injuries, and not one for life insurance.”

This article is sponsored by Wilson-Hite Insurance