What people affected by other natural disasters have learned about navigating insurance and aid

Fátima and her husband contemplate with horror, like so many people, the images of desolation that the DANA left during its passage in the Valencian Community and in the regions of Castile-La Mancha, Andalusia and Catalonia. “He was watching TV and told me he couldn’t watch them because he was reliving what happened to us,” she remembers. On Sunday September 19, 2021, they had to leave their home due to the volcanic eruption of Cumbre Vieja. “We lost everything, but unlike Valencia, lives were not lost,” he consoles himself.

Families who have suffered in their own homes the consequences of a disaster like the one that has occurred these days cannot help but remember the experiences shared by some of those affected by the storm. “I experienced the same thing and you never forget it in life,” says Carlos. Just over 150 kilometers from ground zero of the disaster, another Dana devastated the Vega Baja del Segura and killed six people in 2019. “I was in my room when I saw the water through the window. These are things that we don’t even think could happen,” recognizes this resident of Orihuela.

After mourning the deceased, 215 according to the last update, and finding the missing, the tens of thousands of families affected by the floods will have to face the difficult task of trying to regain normality. And that means, in many cases, getting their homes back. “It’s not what people want to hear, but the first advice is to be patient,” explains lawyer Dulce García, responsible for advising people affected by the La Palma volcano.

The first payment to cover these expenses is usually made by the Insurance Compensation Consortium, the public body under the Ministry of Economy responsible for dealing with damage caused by natural phenomena for people who have taken out a policy. According to the latest data published by the department led by Carlos Body, the Consortium received more than 70,000 applications on Tuesday, including 44,000 for automobiles, of which around 40% are already being processed. The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced that the organization would begin on Wednesday to pay the first compensation to families who lost their vehicles and that it would increase the contribution by 20%. “Having a car is essential to getting back to normal,” he said.

According to the Consortium’s estimate, the cost of compensation will amount to 3.5 billion euros. This is the greatest damage, in economic terms, that Spain has suffered as a result of a natural disaster, after the floods in Euskadi, Cantabria and Navarre in August 1983, which amounted to 948 million euros, adjusted for inflation. To give an idea of ​​the scale of the problem, until 2022, flooding had cost the Consortium 7 billion.

“The immediate reaction is to throw everything away, but when you have to file a claim, what did you have in your home,” says Carlos, who is a lawyer and recommends, where possible, trying to keep damaged items and to throw them away. Take photos and videos of everything to contribute to the case. “We did our best, but I know neighbors with houses similar to mine who didn’t even get 10%,” he laments. He and García recommend conducting a private assessment of the damage, a task to which municipalities can contribute. “In La Palma, El Paso City Hall hired surveyors to carry out the assessments. These are aids that we don’t think about at the beginning, but which in the long run make people’s lives easier,” explains the lawyer.

This same Tuesday, the College of Surveyors of Madrid asked the General Council of Technical Architecture of Spain (CGATE) to direct and coordinate all the technical assistance that the different colleges have proposed to provide to those affected by the floods .

Help for DANA

The government also announced a package of additional measures worth €10.6 billion, with aid of between €20,000 and €60,000 for housing repairs and a grant of up to €10,300 for the recovery of furniture, household appliances and other goods. And for this it is also important to have all the possible information to contribute to the file or your own expert opinion. For the moment, the Consortium has mobilized 495 experts who will assess the damage. These amounts are complementary to those of the Consortium itself and the sum cannot exceed the damage caused. The 60,480 euros will be issued for the total destruction of the habitual residence; If there is damage that affects the structure, it will be 41,280 euros; and if there is damage that does not affect the structure, the aid will be 20,640 euros.

In the Canary Islands, Fátima received 60,000 euros after losing her house and another 30,000 from the autonomous community, but the sources consulted agree that the case of Valencia will be different. “It is not the same as lava burying your house to assess the damage that water can cause,” says García, who recalls that, in any case, no matter the speed, times are always slower than those expected. affected would like. “The aid doesn’t arrive the next day, it took months. The first from the state arrived on December 31, three months after the eruption, explains the victim, who emphasizes that some people affected have not yet received them. The government announced that it would streamline the procedures of notaries and land registers, in order to facilitate procedures.

“In Orihuela there were several rounds of expertise. Some people had been evaluated and paid even before others were. In our case, the DANA was in September and it arrived in February or March of the following year,” explains Carlos. At this time, the Valencian Community also supplemented state aid and compensation from the Consortium. To facilitate the procedures, the Botànic assumed that if a house had been flooded, its occupants would have lost basic goods, such as household appliances and furniture, and activated a registry service from the PROP office of the municipality to inform residents and process requests.

Lessons learned from the Lorca earthquake

In the chapter of lessons learned, the inhabitants of Lorca recall how, four years after the two earthquakes which cost the lives of 9 people and left 325 injured in 2011, a bureaucratic nightmare arrived. “The problem arose when the compensation from the Consortium was made compatible with the public aid approved by royal decree and by the decrees that the administrations approved for those who did not have insurance or which was insufficient,” explains Gloria Martín , the coordinator of the Consortium. Platform to help people affected by the Lorca earthquake.

The problem was that these aids were finalists, for very punctual repairs reflected in the expert opinions. “People used the money as best they could and four years later, they had to justify the expenses and present the invoices or return the aid with late payment interest and surcharges, even though they no longer had that money. “they had used to repair their houses”, explains Martín, who was an IU councilor in the municipal council. This is why he demands that the administrations “simplify the technical language, that the information is correct and that there are offices. support centers staffed by highly qualified personnel.

Finally, thanks to the mobilization and pressure of those concerned, the regional parliament approved a rule simplifying the justification procedure with technical control. “5,300 families were affected by this massive reimbursement procedure. One family can make mistakes, 50 families can make mistakes. 5,300, no,” says Martín.

The lawyer Dulce García gives another series of advice to those affected by a mortgage loan linked to insurance in which, on many occasions, the bank itself appears as beneficiary: “It is an unfair clause that cannot be applied. The insured person is the insured person and the beneficiary of the insurance is that person. If the bank wanted to cover itself, it would have taken out credit payment guarantee insurance. In these cases, it is recommended to present a document to the bank in which you do not authorize installment payment or any withholding at the time of activation of the insurance.

In addition, it requires that administrations collaborate to make life easier for the citizens concerned. “When there is interest, they can share information and synchronize. It’s possible, because it was done in La Palma,” he admits. And he recommends that neighbors who don’t have insurance, which the Consortium will cover, do so now. These policies do not cover the first seven days, but they cover the following, in order to be able to compensate for hypothetical damages caused by debris removal work or further rain.