Flooded Lee neighborhood says insurance adjusters haven’t shown up

BUCKINGHAM, Fla. River Road in Buckingham is more river than road these days.

Residents are using boats, kayaks and paddleboards to get inside flooded homes on River Road to document damage on their own because insurance adjusters are few and far between, they say.

A lone Geico adjuster who just arrived from helping Hurricane Harvey victims in Texas waded a mile down the street Thursday.

“Nobody will come,” resident Carla Klutch said. “They need theirs, we need ours, and the guy just sort of chuckled at me and said call back when the water recedes.”

Carla Klutch’s home is like an island — one of the few where minimal water damage took place.

Klutch and husband Steve put a small fishing boat to use to ferry neighbors in and out.

Insurance agents said it may take 10 to 15 days after a claim is filed for an adjuster to come out to the property.

Regency Insurance Group in Fort Myers advises residents there to document everything, with photos and receipts for any repairs, and have it when that adjuster arrives.

But that’s not always simple.

Melissa Holland, a kindergarten teacher and mother of two young girls, went inside her home for the first time since evacuating from Irma after hitching a ride with Klutch. The first thing she noticed was the smell, which she said will make taking photographs to document her insurance claim difficult.

A photo album of her late mother survived and she clung to it and took it with her.

“It’s just devastating to see everything you’ve worked so hard for destroyed,” she said.

Representatives for State Farm, People’s Trust and USAA said disaster teams are on the ground in Southwest Florida. USAA will host an event Friday to meet homeowners in person at the Home Depot on 1651 Airport Pulling Road S. in east Naples.

All the major carriers should have crews in Southwest Florida soon, Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis said.