Hurricane Season Still in Swing, Stay Prepared | Citrus County Hurricane Claim Attorneys Whittel & Melton

Hurricane Ida tore through Louisiana and the Gulf Coast, leaving millions without power, roads blocked, and sanitary services like water and sewage disrupted for what could be weeks. With so many people forced to seek shelter elsewhere, many are left wondering what they should expect next. Our Citrus County Hurricane Lawyers at Whittel & Melton encourage everyone to stay alert and be prepared for the remainder of hurricane season, especially if you reside in the Atlantic and Southeastern states.

Every hurricane season, names are given alphabetically to storms starting in June. The National Weather Service always names the hurricanes. The letter “I,” is the ninth letter of the alphabet so that means Ida was the ninth storm of the season, which usually happens at the end of September, which means Hurricane Ida was a month early. Hurricane Ida was also one of the most powerful storms the U.S. has seen, joining a few other “I” storms from the past that also left a lingering impact, 2004’s Ivan and 2017’s Irma.

2021 has been a busy storm season already and looking back at 2020 we can see that there were 30 named storms, including 14 hurricanes (7 of these were major storms), 11 named storms that hit the U.S. coastline, and then Greek letters used for the remainder of the hurricanes that closed the season.

By going back and looking at hurricanes and tropical storms from previous years, the reality is alarming: storms are increasing in frequency and intensity. With that said, Hurricane Ida quickly went from a Category 1 Hurricane to a Category 4 Hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, leaving most without the proper time to develop an evacuation plan to protect themselves from the storm that increased from 85 mph to 150 mph in less than 24 hours. Due to this, our lawyers are recommending that all Floridians be prepared to endure more storms and ones that could be more ferocious and result in great damage.

Storm names for the rest of the 2021 hurricane season are listed below:

• Larry
• Mindy
• Nicholas
• Odette
• Peter
• Rose
• Sam
• Teresa
• Victor
• Wanda

What Should You Do After a Hurricane Destroys Your Home or Property?

Once a hurricane makes landfall and wreaks havoc on your home or other properties, it can be shocking for many property owners to find that their insurance company has denied their claim. This is actually quite common, unfortunately, and your insurance provider may list many reasons as to why they have elected to delay or deny your claim.

Our Citrus County Hurricane Claim Lawyers at Whittel & Melton strongly recommend piecing together a plan of action for after a hurricane or tropical storm so that your interests are protected:

1. Create a Hurricane Plan of Action for your family/business. What does that entail? View samples here.
2. Make sure you take before and after pics of your home and other properties. This includes exterior and interior pictures before there is any damages and after the damage has been done. Make sure to take pictures from the ground in order to keep yourself from protected from any added dangers. By taking these pictures, you will have absolute proof of damage so that your insurance company cannot argue that the damage incurred is less than what is the reality.
3. You will want to contact our Citrus County Hurricane Claims Lawyers at Whittel & Melton without any further delay so that you have the expert legal guidance necessary file a successful hurricane or storm damage insurance claim. We will happily help you through this difficult time and make sure that you fully understand the procedure, paperwork, and policies that the insurance company has implemented. We will fight to get you the proper recovery so that you can move on from this tragedy. We are very familiar with the tricks the insurance company uses to try and bar claims, so we will be one step ahead of them in order to get you the full amount you are entitled to. Call us today in Citrus County at 352-726-0078 or call us statewide at 866-608-5529. You can also contact us online 24/7 to request a free consultation.