{"id":2749,"date":"2026-07-07T10:18:05","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T10:18:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.way.com\/business\/insights\/\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T04:11:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T04:11:31","slug":"the-flood-claim-hiding-in-your-policyholders-driveway","status":"publish","type":"insights","link":"https:\/\/www.way.com\/business\/insights\/insurance\/the-flood-claim-hiding-in-your-policyholders-driveway\/","title":{"rendered":"The flood claim hiding in your policyholder\u2019s driveway"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There\u2019s<\/span> <\/span>a<\/span> claim file on your table that\u2019s from a policyholder in Tampa. They did everything right. They boarded their windows, packed what they could carry, and evacuated before the storm made landfall, as the alerts asked them to. They remained safe, and their house managed to make it, too. Their car, still carrying a loan, remained parked in their<\/span> driveway <\/span>and didn\u2019t pull through so well.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This claim is one of several and is not very unusual. It doesn\u2019t usually make the news, let alone the headlines. But if you\u2019re an insurance carrier, this claim and others like it merit a closer look because these claims didn\u2019t have to exist. In fact, these fall under the categories of preventable storm damage and claim losses you didn\u2019t have to incur.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the policyholder, the storm is the event. For insurance carriers, the real storm happens when claims start landing in your claims department. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The numbers behind the claims file<\/span><\/b> <\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Comprehensive coverage, which is what protects against flood and wind damage to a parked vehicle, is simple enough to process. That\u2019s not really what bothers insurers; it\u2019s the scale of the claims after the storm has passed that<\/span> affects <\/span>them the most.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CARFAX estimates that Hurricanes Helene and Milton damaged about\u00a0<\/span>347,000 vehicles in 2024<\/span><\/a>, and\u00a0by\u00a0August 2025, an\u00a0additional\u00a0<\/span>45,000 vehicles\u00a0<\/span><\/a>were flooded by storms.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s also worth considering how little water is needed for a claim to happen. Just\u00a0six inches of moving water can stall most cars<\/a>, and 12 inches can make them float away. A car doesn\u2019t have to be directly hit by a hurricane to be damaged. It can simply be parked in a driveway that is a bit too low.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each one of those cars is a potential claim, and most of them are from policyholders who did all they could.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How these claims translate into losses<\/span><\/b> <\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to the Insurance Information Institute, about\u00a0<\/span>80% of drivers have comprehensive coverage as of 2023<\/span><\/a>. That means\u00a0many\u00a0of those 347,000 vehicles we mentioned\u00a0above turned into paid claims. This obviously hurts insurance carriers, but it also affects policyholders.\u00a0<\/span>Insure.com\u2019s rate analysis<\/span><\/a> shows that a comprehensive claim raises a policyholder\u2019s premium by 21% on average, or roughly $554 a year. While that may sound like the carrier gets its money back eventually, it doesn\u2019t quite work that way.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The payout happens now, in a single quarter, all at once. The recovery trickles in over the years, one renewal at a time, and that happens only if the policyholder stays. This is a straight hit to the loss ratio, and <\/span>it is for d<\/span>amage nobody could have avoided by driving more carefully because nobody was driving.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The fact is, these losses are completely preventable. <\/span><\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Prevention instead of payouts<\/span><\/b> <\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Most disaster response efforts in this industry focus on what happens after a storm. They aim for faster inspections, more adjusters on-site, and quicker payouts. These are important, but they don\u2019t prevent damage from occurring in the first place.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re now wondering what can prevent a flurry of claims after a <\/span>CAT <\/span>event, you\u2019re on the right track.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A hurricane parking program can step in to prevent<\/span> <\/span>damage before it happens. It would work in three phases.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. When a hurricane watch is issued, policyholders are notified of safe, covered parking options away from the storm\u2019s path.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. The policyholder reserves a spot, drives there, and parks their car while there is still time<\/span>.<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. After the storm passes, they get an all-clear alert and go pick it up.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The vehicle, instead of staying in the driveway waiting to become a claim, moves before the storm arrives, so there\u2019s no loss to report to adjusters.<\/span> Your policyholder is happy that their car is safe, plus there’s a positive impact on your claims loss ratio.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n

    A hurricane parking program doesn\u2019t just make claims easier to handle; it stops claims from happening altogether before any damage occurs. <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    What does that mean for the book?<\/span><\/b> <\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    A parking program like the one outlined above does not handle the claims process. It would manage parking and vehicle coordination, allowing a carrier to move thousands of policyholders to safety at once during an active event. This happens without adding extra work for a claims team that is already busy.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    To be clear, a parking program won\u2019t prevent every claim during hurricane season. However, moving vehicles to safety before landfall prevents total losses in the first place. When the number of damaged cars is a whopping 347,000, even a small percentage of vehicles moved away from danger can reduce claim losses to a reasonable extent.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The auto insurance industry has worked hard to settle storm claims faster. However, preventing these claims is a different matter altogether, and currently, only a few forward-thinking companies do.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    That car in the driveway in Tampa? It didn\u2019t have to become a claim. It just needed to be parked somewhere safe for three days.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    There’s a claim file on your table from a policyholder who did everything right. She evacuated, her house held up fine, and her car, still carrying a loan, sat in the driveway and lost anyway. That file isn’t rare. CARFAX counted 347,000 flood damaged vehicles from hurricanes in 2024 alone, and most of them were covered under comprehensive, which means most of them turned into paid claims. NDPP moves the car before the storm ever makes landfall, so the loss never reaches your book in the first place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2750,"template":"","insights_category":[80],"class_list":["post-2749","insights","type-insights","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","insights_category-insurance","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Flood Claim Hiding in Your Policyholder's Driveway<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hurricane season floods hundreds of thousands of parked cars a year, and most of those claims were preventable. 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