Gold Coast Builders Association Builders Spotlight
Coffee & Conversation with Jonathan Falk NAHB Disaster Services
Jun 02, 2023
Sam Yates, Yates & Associates, Public Relations & Marketing
For the second year in a row, your Gold Coast Builders Association is proud to help our builders and communities prepare for, survive, and recover from tropical storms and hurricanes.
Both experts are part of today's Coffee and Conversation, a once monthly special virtual get together you will only hear via your Gold Coast Builders Association and the GCBA Builder's Spotlight.
Let's join host and Anchorman Sam Yates with our latest episode.
The Gold Coast Builders Association Builders Spotlight Podcast is produced by Yates & Associates Public Relations & Marketing, providing exceptional marketing, public relations, and crisis communications for businesses of all sizes throughout Florida and the nation. For information contact your Builders Spotlight Podcast host Sam Yates Sam@YatesPRO.com.
For the second year in a row, your Gold Coast Builders Association is proud to help our builders and communities prepare for, survive, and recover from tropical storms and hurricanes.
Both experts are part of today's Coffee and Conversation, a once monthly special virtual get together you will only hear via your Gold Coast Builders Association and the GCBA Builder's Spotlight.
Let's join host and Anchorman Sam Yates with our latest episode.
The Gold Coast Builders Association Builders Spotlight Podcast is produced by Yates & Associates Public Relations & Marketing, providing exceptional marketing, public relations, and crisis communications for businesses of all sizes throughout Florida and the nation. For information contact your Builders Spotlight Podcast host Sam Yates Sam@YatesPRO.com.
Content may be used and rebroadcast with permission from the Gold Coast Builders Association https://www.gcbaflorida.com.
Sam Yates:
Hello everyone and welcome to another exciting and interesting episode of the Gold Coast Builders Association builders spotlight podcast. News You Can Use and news discovered just for you no matter whether you're a builder and associate or a future homebuyer. Let's find out who's in the builders spotlight today with your podcast host who nails it every time. Sam Yates. Hello, everyone and welcome to another exciting edition of the Gold Coast Builders Association, coffee and conversation. Well, I've got my cup of coffee right here, and I'm going to be drinking coffee and we're going to be having a conversation. Our special guest today, Jonathan Falk and Jonathan is with the National Association of Homebuilders in the Disaster Services arena. And what a better time to have you as a guest because Tropical Storm is knocking on our door. Welcome to the program, Jonathan.
Jonathan Falk, NAHB:
Oh, thank you so much for having me, Sam. Looking forward to being back this year.
Sam Yates:
Great. And when he says we're being back this year, we do have a special event coming up in about two weeks. And we're going to talk about that a little bit more. But before we do that, let's do in the news business what is called a whip around. That is we'll start on my upper left corner. I see Robin, so just tell us who you are. And we will go around the room and once we have everybody identified our audience, then we'll know who you are.
Robin Huebner, GCBA:
Robin. Hi, I'm Robin Huebner. I'm the Communications Committee assistant and liaison.
Nick DeBattisto, Insurance Specialist:
Nick de Batista with Ira insurance office of America and I handle commercial insurance policies. Right.
Sam Yates:
And I know Jonathan just introduced himself next to Jonathan side.
Tom Corona, Swellfi:
Hi, Tom Corona here with swell fi representing 60 lenders. I can form a loan broker, I can find a lender for any situation.
Sam Yates:
I'm looking forward to seeing more about you in the near future. Stephanie.
Stefanie Mogul, 13th Floor Homes:
Good morning Stephanie moMogull from 13th floor Homes. I'm the Vice President of Sales Marketing, nice to meet you all,
Sam Yates:
and saving the best for last Andreea.
Andrea Flores, GCBA:
Hello, everyone. My name is Andrea Flores and I am the membership director with Gold Coast Builders Association.
Sam Yates:
And she's being so modest because she does so many, many things that she's using the short title this morning. So welcome to all of you to our program today. We may have other people who are joining. If we do, I'll make the announcement that we are being recorded so that I can turn this into a podcast because that is required under Florida law. And we all know that we're all law abiding citizens for the moment. So Jonathan, hurricane season is officially here. You're going to be doing a seminar with us in about two weeks. But what are some of the highlights the things that you're going to be talking about?
Jonathan Falk, NAHB:
Yes, so, you know, the, the, you know, super excited for the seminar coming up in a couple of weeks. The theme for this year is preparing for tomorrow's disaster today. What, um, you know, what we're going to be talking about what we're most excited to talk about, is, you know, last year in Florida, was a historic year for hurricanes with Hurricane II, and, you know, impacting, you know, the majority of the state, hundreds of 1000s of homes, businesses damaged, destroyed across the state. So what we're gonna be talking about this year is is, you know, looking at some of the lessons learned from last year, but applying them to future hurricanes, with a specific emphasis on what you could be doing today to prepare your business, your operations for the next disaster.
Sam Yates:
Okay, I'm going to jump over and ask Andrea, Andrea, if you would share with us when that event is coming up. And I know that the first question everyone's going to ask is, okay, I want to attend. Is there a cost for attending? Can you share with us, please?
Andrea Flores, GCBA:
Yes, so the hurricane readiness event is on June 16. And that will be at the manatee lagoon on North Flagler and West Palm Beach. And the cost to attend is $40.
Sam Yates:
All right. Now, Nick, I know that you're one of the sponsors for the event. You're one of the major sponsors. From your vantage point, what messages are you going to be bringing to the table for that hurricane preparedness seminar?
Nick DeBattisto, Insurance Specialist:
Well, not to give away my my whole surprising speech but number one, read and review your policies. See what you have in there. Make sure you're comfortable with taking on the amount of risk that's there not you might want to purchase some more insurance. You firm coverage play the what if game? What if this happened? What if that happened? What if this machine went down? You know, think to yourself, Okay, if this went down, what if, what if I have coverage, what if I need to find a replacement, printout a copy of your policy, if the power is down, you don't have a generator, you know the backup, you want to know who to call, who to contact, when things are going haywire, you want to be prepared. And also you want to make a game plan. If you have damage to your building, or your property or your business, you want to know that you have a plan, a plan set in place that everybody knows everybody acknowledges and everybody knows their role, to make sure that people aren't just running around expecting somebody else to take care of something. And like the movie, Ricky, Bobby, if you're not first, you're last, you want to get your claim in first to get taken care of and get paid out faster. So you're up and running. I'm glad
Sam Yates:
that someone else's watch that movie besides me, Ricky Bobby, one of my favorites. But Jonathan that last year, that was one of the themes, not the Ricky Bobby, but it could have been, that was one of the themes that you hit hard on, and that is make a plan? How important is it to have that emergency plan?
Jonathan Falk, NAHB:
Oh, it's absolutely critical to have an emergency plan. You know, I always say, and I've been quoted as saying it's, you know, an ounce of preparedness is worth a pound of response. And I believe that's completely true. It's the little things. And, you know, studies have shown over the years that the little things that you can do to prepare your business ahead of time ahead of that hurricane ahead of that major weather event will pay dividends in the response. So having, you know, for your insurance, you know, having a list of contents or, you know, knowing knowing exactly what was what was in the home or office ahead of time. You know, it's simple things like that, that you know, and just having that plan in place, so that you can ensure everyone's safety, ensure continuity business, and ensure a quick recovery.
Sam Yates:
Now, when you say a list, when you compile a list of things that you have just a list or photographs, or video,
Jonathan Falk, NAHB:
it could be Yeah, it could be a list of, you know, obviously a list of contents that you can save, not to one machine but save to a cloud, or, you know, printed out and taken with you. But yeah, photographs, any sort of evidence of what what was in that, you know, that that domicile that home or office, you know, could be extremely helpful to you should everything, you know, be damaged or washed away. Now,
Sam Yates:
you have a very different perspective than anyone in in our group here this morning. And that is the national perspective. How does Florida in general stack up in preparedness or the need to be prepared that other states and one that comes to mind is California?
Jonathan Falk, NAHB:
Yeah, yeah. So, you know, for those who may not already know, I'm actually a resident Florida and myself, you know, I live and work out of my home, in Jacksonville, Florida. You know, and I commute, you know, digitally to DC every day. So, you know, it's top of mind for, for me, personally, me and my family personally. But, you know, looking at the national perspective, you know, Florida is, is I don't wanna say Florida is one of those states, but Florida is one of those states that that does tend to have a higher preponderance, preponderance of large scale disasters, you know, the, in the considerations of Florida, you know, the considerations are going to be a little bit different. So, you know, when you're preparing in Florida, you're planning for those large scale events, you're planning for more regional events. And it's, it's it, you know, Florida has its has its challenges, you know, logistically operationally. So it's very important that as a Floridian that, you know, you take that 1015 minutes, you know, an hour you do that planning for your business, so that you can ensure, you know, a quick response is, you know, should that worst case scenario occur?
Sam Yates:
Nick, I don't want to single out any one particular insurance company. I'll leave that to, to your expertise, but I know in California, there are actually some insurers that because of the status of loss, they stopped writing policies. How do we compare here in Florida or is there a comparison?
Nick DeBattisto, Insurance Specialist:
So it's possible if the insurance carrier over extends itself and they have a concentrated risk, and you have a big storm that wipes out that concentrated risk? Obviously, there's only so much capacity and reinsurance behind them, if it's catastrophic, it In very well eliminate reduce their funds. So they might not be able to write business in Florida or they might file for bankruptcy or they might need the government to step in and pay claims, citizens, you know, everybody's assessable. If we have a catastrophic loss, and it's concentrated in one area, and there's no more funds to be allocated, then everybody holding us citizens policy will be assessed for the remaining damages and have to pick up where citizens left off and where they couldn't pay out.
Sam Yates:
Now, you said a magic word that I think a lot of business owners and consumers don't understand reinsurance. Explain reinsurance a little bit.
Nick DeBattisto, Insurance Specialist:
Basically, insurance companies buy insurance for the risk that they're taken on. So it's an investment portfolio that they have to manage. And they have to predict that they're going to have this amount of loss, and that they're obligated to purchase a certain amount of reinsurance to make sure that if there is a catastrophic loss that they're covered is best possible to pay out those claims and cover their their policyholders for any damages they may have.
Sam Yates:
In just a moment, I'm going to turn to any questions that our participants might have. But I wanted to give Andrea a heads up because I'm going to ask her in just a moment as well, how people can register sign up or become a sponsor of our upcoming hurricane event. So now that I've given her the heads up, I don't like to surprise people, Andrea one more time, where when? How much and how can our audience or potential new members become involved in the hurricane event.
Andrea Flores, GCBA:
So one way that they can do so is by going on our website gcda florida.com, they'll go to the tab that says events. And it should be at the very top because it is one of the upcoming events. And so they'll find the hurricane readiness and be able to register for that event there. Also, if they need a contact Chelsey Swanson with nation's roof, she is the chair of the event. And she is more than welcome. More than happy to assist with answering questions regarding the event as well as Nick and yourself and myself and Robin mddcva. Staff is more than happy to assist.
Sam Yates:
And I have to say that I have a little note here from Chelsea, and it says I am on vacation for a few days, please make sure that you mentioned that I am chair of the hurricane event in place you saved me. So back to my posing a couple of questions. What is from and this will be for all of you. And it's going to include myself? What is your prediction for the number of hurricanes that we are going to have this year. And after hurricane season sometime towards the end of December? I'm going to pull this video this audio tape and we're going to see who got it right. And maybe there'll be a little prize for someone. So I'm gonna start with Andreea how many hurricanes
Andrea Flores, GCBA:
Pick on the California kid Right, right? Absolutely. Um, this is I've only been in Florida for a year and a half now. So hope to see row but let's go with three. I don't know. That's my best.
Sam Yates:
Okay, Andrea has selected the number three. Who's next?
Tom Corona, Swellfi:
Give it a shot. Let's say I'll call seven and I do not think that Florida will get hit this year.
Robin Huebner, GCBA:
Robin I'm gonna say 13. Florida, we'll have three near misses. But we will not get it. All right, Nick,
Nick DeBattisto, Insurance Specialist:
as the insurance guy gonna put out in the universe, that we're gonna have zero anywhere, because that affects us regardless of where it is.
Robin Huebner, GCBA:
And Jonathan?
Jonathan Falk, NAHB:
Yeah, so this is a tough question, Sam. I don't usually like to put my my answers down recorded like this. It's hard to lie after the season. I would say I think for I think for actual hurricanes, we're probably I would say, well, we'll take the average maybe six hurricanes. And I would, I would put I would put one impacting Florida as a possibility this year, but I will be No, and I do want to be quick to remind, you know, all the listeners right now that, you know, the forecasts are coming out the kind of early season outlooks are coming out from all the various meteorologists. And it could be anywhere from, you know, below average season to in your normal season. But you know, the one reminder I would like to put out Sam is it only takes one storm, even if it is a low activity year, then you know, Florida might or might not be impacted. It really always keep a close impact on or always keep a close watch on their storms developing. So because it really only takes that one storm that can, you know, severely impact your home, your business, your community.
Sam Yates:
Dagnabbit he stole my line, I was gonna say it only takes one. But, you know, honestly, having been involved with the American Red Cross as a volunteer communicator on a local and national basis for many, many years. It does seriously, it only takes one, you can have the best hurricane season in the world, but that one can be a really major problem for us. So I noticed that I did not ask Stephanie yet for her. So I'm gonna hold off on my final comment before we hear from Stephanie. Stephanie.
Stefanie Mogul, 13th Floor Homes:
Hi, I think there'll be let's say six hurricanes, with one touching Florida in some manner. Okay.
Sam Yates:
Well, I'm going to be the the person that's probably on the outlier. area, I'm going to say eight hurricanes, two major, and two hurricanes, one of which will be major impacting Florida. We seem to have putting on another hat watching the the the weather systems, a little bit of a battle between La Nina and Mon Nino, depending on how that works out could see what we happen. And of course, that very famous Bermuda high that has yet to put in a major appearance of that's my prediction. All right. Just about that time for us to wrap it up. Nick, Jonathan, one more time on what's coming up for our hurricane seminar. Jonathan, you first.
Robin Huebner, GCBA:
Yeah,
Jonathan Falk, NAHB:
so the our hurricane seminar coming up June 16 830, in the morning at manatee was lagoon we're bringing together, you know, I'll be doing a presentation on preparing your business. And we're also bringing together just a wonderful panel of wonderful panel of industry professionals and local leaders, you know, to talk about these issues ahead of hurricane season. And hopefully, you know, everyone can come. There'll be some great networking, which you know, is also important, in, you know, meeting your fellow business owners, meeting your local leaders ahead of the season. So some great networking, and hopefully some great learnings as well. So I look forward to seeing everyone out.
Nick DeBattisto, Insurance Specialist:
So everything that Jonathan said, and I'm excited to bring a little more information about a topic that nobody likes to discuss. It's always pushed under the rug, answer a lot of questions and just give an overview of what to expect what to look into, and how to really digest the insurance policy. That is a very daunting task, but hopefully make it a little more exciting and intriguing and powerful as a business owner to have a grasp on what's actually in the 150 pages of insurance that sits on your desk. So excited
Sam Yates:
about that. All right. One more time, Andrea, how may our listeners and our audience take part in this wonderful informational seminar,
Andrea Flores, GCBA:
GCB, a florida.com, events, Hurricane readiness and register?
Sam Yates:
That is, um, that is an awesome way to do it. And I'm going to tease a little bit of something else. If we have an you know, knock on wood that we do not. But if we have a major disaster, one of the things that happens is people must rebuild and recover. And in that process, a lot of folks are going to be reaching out trying to find funding sources to do that. And I have a suspicion we may have had someone taking part in our event today that will be able to provide us some answers for that in the future. Am I correct about that?
Jonathan Falk, NAHB:
Absolutely. You know, unfortunately, the damage that the hurricanes create affects a lot of people but also it's somewhat of an economic stimulus. And there's going to be opportunities out there for business expansion, or businesses that need to rebuild. There's financing available one particular product that I have a lender that I deal with. And this is the only one that I'm aware of that does it. Little known SBA that allows for 100% financing includes closing costs and renovations. So there's opportunity out there for funding for people that have problems with hurricanes. And hopefully we won't have any but you know, if they do it, the products are there.
Sam Yates:
I think I may know the host of that upcoming podcast that can wiggle you in to that podcast if you would like to take part because I know a lot of folks are going to want to know how that how that works. So we'll talk offline, where you can want to thank all of you for participating in our monthly coffee and conversation. And for everyone who is listening right now. Mark your calendar June 16. And you'll be hearing more about this event. I guarantee a little birdie told me another reminder is going to go out on Monday. Is that right Robin? She's shaking her head. Yes, for those of you just listening once again, thanks for joining us. I'm Sam Yates with the Gold Coast Builders Association. Have a great day everybody. Thanks for listening to the Gold Coast builders spotlight. If you have a guest or a topic you would like to recommend contact your G CBA. Builders spotlight podcast host Sam Yates, or the Gold Coast Builders Association. The GCBA builders spotlight podcast, building relationships one podcast at a time. Have a wonderful day everyone