Businesses face the storms

Turner is a storm administrator for American Family Insurance, and his job is to respond to natural disasters like the tornadoes that ripped through southwest Missouri on March 12.

Based in Madison, Wis., home to American Family, Turner and 60 other catastrophe response team members spend their year traveling throughout 17 states, surveying damage and supplementing local adjusters. Five responded to the local twister outbreak, with 33 contracted adjusters helping the cause.

“We are always ready to go,” Turner said.

So far, they’ve received 4,600 local claims from the recent storm, 2,650 of which are auto claims. They’re expecting up to 6,000 claims in the Springfield area, mostly in hard-hit Christian County. Statewide, American Family has four catastrophe response teams deployed and has received about 20,000 claims.

State Farm Insurance has received 11,000 structural claims and 20,000 auto claims statewide, according to spokeswoman Tara Eubanks.

Ken Muth, spokesman for American Family, said his company’s catastrophe response team responded to 40 natural disasters – tornadoes, floods and wildfires – last year, issuing $390.7 million to the company’s affected customers.

“I’ve worked several tornadoes,” said American Family property adjuster Daniel Deeken after surveying damage on Foxtrot Lane in Nixa. “This (outbreak) was a little more drastic, it seemed to me, because we had a lot more total losses.”

Of course, insurance companies aren’t the only businesses that go into overdrive when a storm hits. Trash haulers, police and fire departments, restoration and demolition companies, and a slew of nonprofits led by American Red Cross and the Compassion Alliance have been working overtime in the areas hit by the storm.

Jeff and Karen Olsen, owners of Missouri Storm Shelters, 4983 E. Highway 60, have experienced three times their usual business since March 12. Their best-selling item is a 6-by-8-by-6-foot concrete shelter for underground use that sells for $2,495.

“We have been absolutely inundated since this outbreak,” Jeff Olsen said. “It’s sad that it takes an event like this.”

As people rebuild after the storm, government officials statewide have warned residents to be wary of construction contractor fraud.

Fortunately, Bryan Newberry, assistant Nixa fire chief, said fraud hasn’t been the problem officials worried it would be. Newberry said one man went to a hard-hit neighborhood asking for donations while falsely claiming to be with the neighborhood’s homeowners association.

Other than that incident, he said, “Everything’s been pretty much up front. I haven’t heard anything about storm chasers.”