Dan Ramsey, chief executive officer of the Oklahoma Association of Insurance Agents, said that the first thing his association did was to construct a press release, establishing itself as a conduit for agents, insurance companies and insureds. We had spots on television and radio to let insureds and agents know that they should contact us. We wanted to inform them that we would work with carriers to get claims paid. We had a claims contact at the First Baptist Church in Moore to get the claims process going. Ramsey said that the association also established a fund to assist those most in need as a result of the disaster.
People are in shock.
They are worried about being made whole and very often they don't understand their insurance coverages and are concerned that they will not be paid. The agent's job is to calm them down, assure them that they will be reimbursed for their insured losses and convince them to take things a step at a time. The first step is to get a roof over their heads. The first office is 22 miles north of Moore and suffered no damages. We were able to restore power to our computer center through borrowed generators, and our computers were up and running a day after the tornado.