SEASIDE HEIGHTS, N.J. (October 27, 2015) – Farmers Insurance® and the St. Bernard Project (SBP) will host a 72-hour home rebuild event from Oct. 27 to Oct. 29, 2015, in Kearney, New Jersey, to commemorate the third anniversary of Hurricane Sandy. The three-day build will conclude with a “Welcome Home Party” with Farmers and SBP in Keansburg, New Jersey, on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2015.
“The 72-hour rebuild is another example of the continued resolve and determination of Farmers and SBP volunteers to speeding up the recovery efforts in New Jersey following Hurricane Sandy,” said Deb Aldredge, Chief Administrative Officer for Farmers Insurance. “We hope that our continued efforts, including this week’s activities, help the area’s residents return home before the holidays and sustains the momentum needed for the recovery actions to have continued success.”
Hurricane Sandy caused an estimated $18.75 billion in insured property losses, according to the Insurance Information Institute, making it the third costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. Since 2014, Farmers has been helping communities in Monmouth and Ocean Counties rebuild through its Farmers Cares program, a partnership with the SBP that provides assistance to communities in the wake of a natural disaster.
Farmers has committed weekly employee volunteers and financial assistance to help impacted communities offset some of the costs associated with rebuilding and recovery, and will continue to do so moving forward. Nearly 50 volunteers are expected to participate in the 72-hour rebuild, in addition to the more than 500 volunteers who have logged more than 2,000 volunteer hours in New Jersey since recovery efforts began.
“Farmers is proud of our partnership with the St. Bernard Project and the recovery that’s taken place since Hurricane Sandy, but New Jersey’s recovery is not done yet, which means we are not done yet,” said Aldredge. “We’re committed to using the Disaster Recovery Playbook as a roadmap for restoring and revitalizing the effected area as quickly as possible so New Jersey doesn’t have to recognize a 10-year anniversary of the recovery efforts.”
The ongoing commitment of dedicated volunteers will allow Monmouth and Ocean Counties to effectively use the Disaster Recovery Playbook and help to continuously improve the roadmap to help guide future disaster recoveries. The Disaster Recovery Playbook is a free and open resource for communities across the nation and is a compilation of best practices Farmers and the SBP team learned from helping to rebuild New Orleans, Joplin, Missouri, and Rockaway, New York.
Knowing that communities can more readily recover from disaster if they are able to stand on the shoulders of those who have recovered before them, Farmers used the lessons learned in Joplin, Missouri, to create “a step-by-step” guide that provides communities with a roadmap to recovery. This playbook is currently being used to help aid recovery in communities in Monmouth and Ocean Counties.
Visit www.Farmers.com to learn more about the Farmers Cares program and to learn how you can help rebuild Monmouth and Ocean Counties.
About Farmers Insurance
Farmers Insurance Group of Companies is a leading U.S. insurer group of automobiles, homes and small businesses and also provides a wide range of other insurance and financial services products. Farmers Insurance is proud to serve more than 10 million households with over 19 million individual policies across all 50 states through the efforts of over 50,000 exclusive and independent agents and approximately 22,000 employees. Farmers Insurance Exchange, the largest of the three primary insurance entities that make up the Farmers Insurance Group of Companies®, is ranked No. 264 on the 2015 Fortune 500 list of largest companies.
For more information about Farmers, visit its website at www.farmers.com, on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/FarmersInsurance, or on Twitter @WeAreFarmers.
