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For carriers in catastrophe-prone markets, readiness can never be seasonal.
Chris McLeod started the conversation with the anthem for Carriers on the coast, “if you’re not in hurricane season, you’re preparing for it”.
That reality shapes the basics of a strong claims operation, from building cat plans, validating vendor readiness, pressure-test staffing assumptions, and making sure the organization can scale when volume spikes.
But Chris’s real point goes further than operational discipline.
“The biggest thing is empathy. We have to make sure the customer feels it, and that we hire people who can deliver it.”
The strongest claims operations are not just built to absorb volume. They are built to respond with empathy in moments when policyholders are under real stress. And in Hurricane prone areas, that empathy has to extend inward too, because employees may be dealing with their own disruption at the exact same time they are helping customers through theirs.
The Industry Context
Cat readiness is often treated like a checklist. All of the steps matter, but none of it works particularly well without the right people and the right operating philosophy behind it.
In a live event, a carrier is not only dealing with volume of claims. It’s managing uncertainty, communication failures, vendor strain, policyholder anxiety and internal fatigue all at the same time. This same pattern shows up in broader catastrophe infrastructure planning: the stress points that surface during a storm often exist before the storm. A catastrophe just exposes them faster.
Chris’ perspective is that the process is only useful if it helps the organization protect and scale what it values under pressure. For Loggerhead, that starts with people.
What Strong Cat-Ready Teams Still Need
There’s a few table stakes steps Chris outlines when preparing for hurricane season:
- Maintain a clear catastrophe plan. Teams need defined escalation paths, response triggers, communication flows, and deployment expectations.
- Run disciplined retrospectives. Each activation should produce lessons that improve the next one.
- Validate vendor capacity before it is needed. A vendor that looks strong on paper may be stretched thin when multiple events hit close together.
- Plan for adjuster market tightness. Independent adjuster capacity can move quickly, especially when other regions are already absorbing talent.
- Build flexibility into the model. A cat plan that only works in the expected scenario is not enough.
Preparedness Also Means Having Room To Pivot
Beyond the steps that make an organization operationally ready, Chris emphasized the importance of flexibility.
He pointed to 2017, when Hurricane Irma hit Florida shortly after Hurricane Harvey hit Texas. By the time Florida was impacted, much of the flexible adjuster market had already been allocated to Texas, forcing carriers to adapt their staffing assumptions in real time.
This brings us to another key point. You need a Plan A and a Plan B, but you also probably need a Plan C. In 2017, many organizations had planned adequately for catastrophe staffing, but their assumptions were quickly challenged.
Chris shared that after each year of catastrophe planning, there is always a new insight uncovered during the retro. In 2017, the takeaway was clear. Vendor relationships need to be tested, not assumed. Teams need a Plan B, and sometimes a Plan C.
The Key Takeaway: Build for People Under Stress
The real insight in Chris’s perspective is what sits underneath those readiness mechanics.
Catastrophe claims are human moments before they are operational ones. Policyholders are not reaching out during routine conditions. They may be displaced, without power, or coordinating repairs, housing, childcare, and work disruptions all at once. A claims team has to meet that moment with urgency, clarity, and empathy.
What is easy to overlook is that employees in Florida may be dealing with many of those same realities at the same time themselves.
A cat plan is not just about whether the business can respond. It is also about whether the people responsible for the response are set up to keep functioning in a stressful, unstable environment. Team members may be evacuating, losing power, or managing their own property damage while trying to help policyholders navigate theirs.
“You have to have empathy for the employees too. Many of them are being impacted personally, and you’re still asking them to go above and beyond for the customer.”
That perspective reframes empathy as an operational requirement. In a catastrophe, the team’s ability to support customers depends on whether the organization has also made room to support the team.
Hire the Right People. Then Help Them Deliver Consistently
For Chris, the strongest catastrophe organizations are not just the ones with the biggest rosters or the most polished response documents. They are the ones with people who can show judgment, care, and steadiness when the situation gets messy.
That has clear implications for how carriers should build claims organizations:
- Hire people who can combine urgency with empathy
- Set clear expectations before a storm hits
- Train teams so quality does not collapse under pressure
- Document procedures so good judgment can scale across internal staff and external partners
At Loggerhead, the internal team has been the group holding the operation together even when extra capacity was brought in during storm events.
“It’s all about hiring the right people. People who are invested in the company, see the vision, and understand what we’ve agreed to do for the customer.”
Outside support matters, but the core team is often what preserves consistency when volume spikes.
That same people-first mindset also shows up in Loggerhead’s go-live story, where the implementation succeeded because the team approached it with alignment, clarity, and momentum from the start.
What Claims Leaders Should Take Away
Yes, catastrophe readiness still requires the basics. You need the plan. You need the retrospectives. You need better vendor validation, better staffing assumptions, and better operational discipline.
But beyond all of that, the first principle of a successful catastrophe organization starts with people.
That means hiring for empathy. Supporting employees like human beings, not infinite capacity. Building systems that help teams stay clear and consistent under pressure. And recognizing that during Florida storm events, both customers and employees may be carrying a lot more than the claim itself.
The best operations are not just prepared for volume. They are built to preserve humanity when pressure is highest.
Learn More
Cat readiness depends on more than a response playbook. It also depends on whether your systems help claims teams communicate clearly, consistently, and compassionately under pressure. If your team is rethinking high-volume claims workflows, book a demo to see how Kyber helps carriers deliver better claims communication at scale.
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