Alvarez is impressed with the way that insurers have responded to the unprecedented hurricane season. “They had catastrophe plans in place, and they've been executed, and they were able to just get adjusters out in the field immediately,” he said. “Most companies' catastrophe plans were set up for a major storm, not four of them. I'm very surprised that the companies have been as organized as they are.”

Although claimants are not being returned to their pre-hurricane conditions as quickly as they might wish, the industry is doing its best to see that its obligations are being met, Alvarez believes. “I've been impressed with the way it's been working so far — four major storms,” he said. “The people who are in trouble, it's not because of anything that the insurance companies have done or not done, it's just the severe damage, trying to get the damage repaired. In a lot of cases, the adjusters can get out there and inspect the damage, but what good does it do the insureds, if they can't get a contractor out there to do the work?”

Although there is competition for a limited number of resources, more contractors seem to be available than after Hurricane Andrew, Alvarez finds. “They've already taken the immediate steps to reduce the damage, and that's something you didn't see after Andrew,” he said. “There seem to be a lot more emergency board-up services, temporary roofing services, things like that.”

Florida's building codes contribute to the delays, noted Tom Benoit, president of Catastrophe Management Consultants, who has been part of the recovery effort. “Florida maintains some of the strictest codes in the country,” he said. “As a result, only certain roof shingles meet these codes. The manufacturers still have to meet the needs of the rest of the country, as well as trying to re-roof the state of Florida. That has caused long delays in shipments and officials have said that the wait for new roofs could be up to a year.”

Insulation and drywall also are in short supply, according to Benoit, which has driven up the costs for these and other building materials. “The above items, added together, are making the settling of losses more difficult than usual,” he said. “It's been untold years since the insurance industry and adjusters have had such an arduous job of adjusting this multitude of losses at one time.”

Although the state has been running commercials warning victims of the storms to be wary of price gouging and fraud, so far, there have been few reports of opportunists' trying to take advantage of those in desperate need of home repairs, said Alvarez. “At the worst, we've been seeing inflated estimates, but I don't think that they've been inflated to the point of gouging,” he said. “You've got to put some cushion in there to get people to come out and do the work. The prices are going up because these guys are working just as hard and fast as they can. It's probably too early to hear as much about fraudulent contractors yet, but with the massive amount of damage, I suspect that you will hear about it.”

Progress is being made, however, and the process of cleaning up after the hurricanes is going better than anyone might have expected, Alvarez believes. “It's been a horrible experience, make no mistake about it, but it's actually been going fairly smoothly, given the circumstances.”