By Dave Thomas

Residents in many areas of the Gulf Coast watched their lives change forever on Aug. 29, 2005.

When all was said and done, Hurricane Katrina went in the record books as the country’s worst natural disaster, leaving a large swath of death and destruction in her wake. While independent insurance agents and claims adjusters were expected and did answer the call for help, they knew full well Katrina’s impact.

While Louisiana, Alabama and Florida all were affected by Katrina, the state of Mississippi may have seen some of, if not the worst, damage. With support from the Mississippi Big “I” and others, agents and their policyholders are on the slow road to recovery. Insurance Journal spent two days in the Magnolia State in late October talking to and visiting with three independent insurance agents who understood firsthand the devastation left by Katrina.

Scott Naugle, executive vice president of Stewart Sneed Hewes, Gulfport, Miss.

For Scott Naugle, working out of a tent in late October was not on his schedule at the beginning of this year.

Naugle and his staff of about 20 were working on the corner of a busy intersection in Gulfport when Insurance Journal arrived on an October morning. The company has six offices in Mississippi, three on the coast. The company’s corporate office in Gulfport was destroyed, so Naugle and staff set up shop in a tent to meet the needs of the agency’s policyholders.

“I never envisioned a tent, but you do what you have to do,” Naugle said. The company has about 100 employees on the Gulf Coast and 14 of whom lost everything.

When asked if he had any thoughts of riding out Katrina, Naugle said getting his family to safety was his top priority. “The Governor (Haley Barbour) was begging residents to leave,” Naugle said. “Some policyholders were calling two days before Katrina hit, trying to bind coverage which was too late.”

Hot on the minds of many, Naugle noted, was which aspect of storm damage was greater, wind or flood? “A good half-mile along the coast, that was the big question,” he said.

Asked if the insurance industry has been doing a good job meeting the needs of its policyholders, Naugle remarked that he thought so. “The story that doesn’t get out is that for the most part, the insurance industry has performed tremendously well.”

While Naugle noted that some residents have already told him they’re leaving the area once they get their check for damages, many others have said they will stay and rebuild.

Naugle is one of those, who despite the tragedy, does not have plans to leave the area he has called home for decades.

Aulton Vann, owner of Aulton Vann Insurance Agency, Pascagoula, Miss.

Aulton Vann came to work to find his Pascagoula office under about four feet of water as Katrina roared through town. His home across from the Gulf Coast was even worse off. Insurance Journal toured what used to be his home later that day and all that was left were memories.

Vann is no stranger to the wrath of a great hurricane.

“Camille (1969) was the torch holder for so long and no one thought there would ever be another one like her. Katrina stayed here for 12 hours and the surge of water came three miles inward. We were at my son’s house about a mile and a half from the beach and we had 29 inches of water there. All the businesses along Market Street here sustained water damage. We just didn’t think the water surge was going to come in this far. The wind damage, some 300 to 400 yards off the beach, was pretty significant.”

After leaving his son’s house, Vann expected to return home and find something left of his house, but the scene was a surprise even to him. According to Vann, his home survived Camille and only had about $1,000 in damages. Katrina was an entirely different story.

“I figured I was going to come back to something,” Vann continued. “When you got down there, you could see through my back door neighbor’s home. You could see the water. You know at that point you’re in trouble.”

Vann noted that the scenes broadcast around the country of Katrina’s damages did not do it justice. “We’ve had some company people come down who we had sent pictures to of the destruction. When they got here, they were utterly destroyed by it.”

As for the policyholders whom Vann serves, he noted that most people plan to rebuild.

“We’re tough,” Vann said. “People are rebuilding as fast as they can. Our main concern is that some 85 percent of our people along the Gulf Coast did not have flood insurance. Speaking as an agent, FEMA said you’re not in a flood zone, so if you’re not in a flood zone, you don’t buy flood insurance. It isn’t that you can’t purchase it, but at that point, it is an unnecessary expense. So most people here don’t have flood insurance.”

Dave Treutel, owner of Treutel Insurance Agency, Bay St. Louis, Miss.

Dave Treutel has been calling his current residence home for some 13 years.

Treutel and his son, Alex, spent the first night of the storm going to another part of town to pick up Treutel’s father-in-law who was in a lower-lying area.

After dropping him off at the Stennis Space Center, Treutel and his son had planned to return to their home, but officials said the water was already covering the roads and winds were picking up, so the two joined their relative at the Center, returning the next morning.

Treutel said a handful of his neighbors within a block of his home were not as fortunate, with several passing away do to the flooding.

“We had 12 feet of water here,” Treutel said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Where my office is located (several miles from the home), there was about a 30-foot storm surge. The day after the storm, it took us some 20 minutes to make our way down the street to our home with the downed trees, water, etc. When you saw somebody that you recognized I think I hugged more people in the first couple weeks after the storm than I think I have hugged in my life. People were just happy to be alive and see people alive.”

As Insurance Journal toured Treutel’s home, he said that he will rebuild. “My wife and I talked and the first couple of days, you just want to get away. We’ve been dealing with the insureds and can understand where they’re coming from. We operated out of a tent the first couple of weeks before the outskirts of Hurricane Rita hit the tent and took it down.”

Treutel and his family had recently finished renovating their house just before Hurricane Katrina struck.

“We’ve decided that we do want to come back, but we’ve come to the realization that whatever happens it won’t happen very quickly, it will take time. Home is where your heart is. Thousands of people have said this is their home and they’ll come back.”

President of the Mississippi Big ‘I’ visits Bay St. Louis, Miss.

For Richard Davis, several trips down to the Gulf Coast area in the last several months have really been an eye-opening experience. “You really have to see this (devastation) with your own eyes. It is something you just can’t imagine. About only 20 percent (population) is back here, the other 80 percent are gone because there is nothing here.”

The Big ‘I’ has been helping agents with office supplies to keep their businesses up and running. “We and others have had to do that because there is nowhere around here to purchase these things,” Davis remarked. Asked if the insurance industry was pulling together across the state, Davis noted, “There have been agents that have called me personally who asked what they could do to help.”

For the policyholders in the area, Davis said as difficult as it is, patience is key. “The adjusters are getting out there as fast as they can. There is such a need for adjusters, but there is such a wide scope of damaged area.”

One suggestion that keeps coming up from the public is having a more cohesive process to meet their needs. “We hope that somewhere down the line that this will be a great example of this need for cohesion,” Davis said. “The flood people are saying the wind people need to pay and the homeowners’ coverage says so-and-so has to pay. Some say we need the engineers to come in and they’ll decide what was water and what was wind. If we had one policy that you could just check off whether you wanted flood, earthquake, wind, and have a provider for those coverages and have one policy with one company, it would make things so much easier. Companies see, too, that it’s a problem.”