As estimates from Hurricane Matthew continue to come in, the numbers are climbing into the billions. Boston-based insurer, Karen Clark & Company (KC&C), estimates that insurers will pay approximately $7 billion for damages from wind, storm surge and inland flooding. Other estimates put the damage somewhere between $8 and $10 billion.

Among the most severely impacted coastal areas were Daytona Beach, Fla.; Tybee Island, Ga.; Savannah, Ga.; Charleston, S.C.; and Hilton Head, S.C. Several towns in North Carolina exceeded their 500-year flood levels with significant precipitation. According to the NOAA, Fayetteville received 12.05 inches, Raleigh had 8.17 inches and Goldsboro experienced more than 15 inches of rain.

What does all of this mean for insurers? Companies were moving resources and assigning claims areas well before Matthew hit. After the storm, insurers knew where they needed to deploy their teams, and some faced a variety of challenges. “Smaller insurers have been scrambling to get adjuster representation,” explained Peter Crosa, of St. Petersburg, Florida-based Peter J. Crosa & Co., and the president of the National Association of Independent Insurance Adjusters (NAIIA). “The Carolinas appear to be the most severely impacted and Hilton Head has been devastated.” Many of the claims involved second homes that were mostly unoccupied.