WEST NUECES COUNTY, Texas — Last Thursday’s storms hit the Petronila community hard. As they begin to rebuild, some have home insurance to rely on, but not all have coverage.
KRIS 6 News spoke with a family that's among those without coverage.
“I mean, like everything is gone,” Nicole Sauceda, homeowner in Petronila, said.
Nicole and Tony Sauceda owned a home on County Road 24 in Petronila. After the storm, the husband and wife are left looking at the home scattered around a field.
“And, of course you know, no insurance on that,” Nicole said. “We took a huge hit that was our whole savings.”
KRIS 6 News has visited the Petronila community the past few days and has heard from many residents that they do not have insurance, like the Sauceda family.
However, Tony said it is not because they haven’t tried.
“I called so many people, so many different agents, and we just couldn't get insurance,” Tony said. “Nobody would insure it because of the, you know, the codes and the, the wind speeds that I had to meet.”
Right now, Nueces County is unable to declare an emergency disaster declaration for this storm.
So, people in the Petronila community are forced to pay out of pocket if they don’t have insurance.
Mistie Hinote, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Insurance, said homeowners' insurance covers fire, lightning, and theft, but in Nueces County, it does not cover wind or hail damage.
“So you would want to go through a state department called the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association, TWIA, a lot of people know it by, and they sell wind and hail insurance,” Hinote said.
Hinote said, going into hurricane season, we never know what kind of rain or flooding we're gonna get. So, you need flood insurance, which is a separate policy.
“You could have a homeowners insurance policy, a wind and hail policy, and a flood insurance policy to fully cover yourself,” Hinote said.
If you are having issues getting insurance to cover your property, the TDI recommends asking different companies or getting an insurance broker to find the right one. If you get denied by two different companies, you could go to the Texas FAIR plan.
“The only thing we can do right now is get on TDEM, get those surveys done so they can see the damage, so they can assess what has happened,” Nicole said.
Hinote said it's important to do a home inventory of your belongings. That will help speed up the claims process if a disaster strikes.
