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Hurricane Helene made landfall in northwestern Florida near the state’s Big Bend region on Thursday around 11:10 p.m. ET as a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds estimated at 140 mph.
The massive storm, which was weakened to a tropical storm by Friday morning and later in the day to a post-tropical cyclone, is one of the largest to hit the Gulf of Mexico in the last century, according to meteorologists, with a wind field that could spread as wide as the distance between Indianapolis and Washington, D.C. By Thursday, the Biden-Harris Administration had approved pre-landfall emergency declarations for Florida, Georgia and North Carolina, although watches and warnings were in place across 12 different states.
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By Friday morning around 10 a.m. ET, more than 3 million people were without power across Florida, Georgia and South Carolina alone, more than 600,000 were without power in North Carolina, and over 50,000 each in Tennessee and Virginia, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks power outages across the country.
Agents gearing up to be a resource
Agents in areas impacted by the storm spoke to Inman about hunkering down to work from home, staying inside and putting on their “pandemic hats,” so to speak, shifting back into gear to serve as a resource to their clients while staying safe.
Inman contributor and agent Jimmy Burgess said that he was fortunate that the hurricane ended up making landfall well east of where he is located in Destin, Florida, but that many clients who own second homes in the area were still concerned about their properties.
“We’ve got a lot of out-of-towners, especially in coastal areas,” Burgess said.
“So what happens a lot of times is, that they’re fearful and they don’t know what’s going on. So what we have always suggested [to our agents], obviously is to take care of themselves first … But one of the biggest ways that [agents] can really help their clients right now is to give them some peace and comfort about their place.
“So what we’ve been doing this morning is just taking a quick video on our phone of the house and say, ‘Hey, listen, I know you’re probably just watching The Weather Channel and wondering how your place is doing. I was in the area, drove by, just did a quick walk around and everything looks great. But I figured sending you a video would give you a little bit of peace and just know that I’m here if you’d like for me to go in and check on anything.’”
Downed trees in Atlanta | Courtesy of Engel & Völkers Atlanta
Burgess said that something he also likes to do is spread the word on social media about additional resources that might be helpful to agents or their clients during a crisis, like sharing information about shelter locations and hours or services that might be helpful, like flood remediation or roofing companies.
“In other words, become the resource at the time of these needs, because that’s who we are and that’s who we should be, ultimately, at a time like this,” Burgess said. “It’s a great time to be able to just really step up and be the leader in your local community in the way that we should be.”
Many of the areas hardest hit by the storm are fairly rural and less populated, which means that fewer individuals may be impacted, but also that those who are impacted may have a tougher time getting access to resources.
Atlanta had some serious flooding and downed trees in areas, Christa Huffstickler of Engel & Völkers told Inman. She said although her home in the center of the city was not significantly impacted, agents in her office shared shocking photos of completely flooded streets and told of homes that had flooded, too.
A flooded street in Atlanta outside an agent’s home | Courtesy of Engel & Völkers Atlanta
Like Burgess, agents in Atlanta were also seeking to provide resources for their clients during this time.
“What I’m seeing is a lot of our agents jumping to the front line in a consultative way, being like, ‘Hey, I have all these vendors that I’ve worked with, call this person for this, call this person for this. This person can help you get out some of this water going to the basement.’ So that’s what a lot of them are doing right now, deploying their resources to help each other and their clients,” Huffstickler said.
She added that she and her team members were using their pandemic-era “muscle memory” to stay safe while being a source of information and aid to clients.
Varying impacts across the southeast
Asheville and Boone, North Carolina, also experienced intense flooding on Friday, the likes of which had not been seen in nearly 100 years, according to WCNC-TV chief meteorologist Brad Panovich, who was posting regular weather alert updates to Facebook. By Friday around 5 p.m. ET, all roads in western North Carolina had been closed due to flooding, Panovich reported, urging his Facebook followers to heed advice from local authorities not to travel.
When Inman briefly caught Panashe Real Estate at Compass team principal Tracy Veteto on the phone this morning, he was unable to speak because he himself was navigating floods in Asheville, and trying to ensure those around him were OK.
“I’m happy because I just passed someone who seems OK,” Veteto said breathlessly before having to end the call.
By about midday, Roanoke Valley Association of Realtors Director of Communications and Events Jim Sweetwood reported to Inman that region in southwest Virginia had thus far sustained heavy wind and rain, but otherwise did not face any “major effects from the storm” as of yet. But Sweetwood noted that the storm was obviously ongoing, and he could not predict what might happen through the weekend.
How Florida’s insurance crisis may respond
Floridians have already been dealing with extreme challenges in home insurance coverage in recent years, with major insurers dropping out of the state. As of last spring, about 70 percent of homeowners in Florida said they had been impacted by increased home insurance rates or changes in coverage in the last year, according to a report from Redfin. Upwards of 10 insurers in Florida have liquidated since 2017, as flood and storm risks increase.
Average premiums in South Florida saw some of the sharpest increases in the country in 2023 as homeowners paid more than $10,000 in an average annual premium, according to a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).
The full extent of Helene’s damage will not be known for some time still, but CoreLogic estimated that about 25,000 homes in Florida were at risk of flooding with losses potentially hitting $5.6 billion. Moody’s also estimated that about 162,000 commercial properties worth a combined $425 billion were at risk of wind damage, HousingWire reported.
Since most insurers in the region prepare for tropical storms each year, Mark Friedlander of the Insurance Information Institute told Newsweek that he expects claims related to Helene to be paid out since the companies “have adequate levels of reinsurance to handle large loss events like a hurricane.” Friedlander added that, based on current loss projections, Helene “should be a very manageable event for the Florida insurance industry that is primarily covered by reinsurance.”
Meanwhile, the storm also has some individuals considering offloading their Florida homes, like a pediatrics emergency medicine doctor with the TikTok username Beachgem10, located in St. Petersburg, who posted this video on TikTok, showing the progression of their flooding along with the caption, “Anyone interested in buying a house?”