Superstorm Sandy has shut down the downtown Manhattan offices of New York state insurance regulators, causing a scramble to continue delivering essential services to the public and industry.

David Neustead, a spokesman for the New York State Department of Financial Services confirmed that the department has lost its offices on Beaver St., "severely" disrupting the work the department does from there.

"We are finding temporary space and trying to get back up and running," says Neustead.

To deal with the current crisis, the department has extended the deadline on a host of filings and is utilizing mobile communication until alternative space is located, he says.

Neustead says it is too early to tell how many insurance claims have been filed since Superstorm Sandy struck last week. The department will issue that information once it has been collected.

He says the department has an Insurance Emergency Operations Center where representatives with the major insurance carriers join department officials to communicate problems and deal with them quickly, such as getting adjusters out to a certain area. Overall, the process has been working well.

Yesterday, the department set up a mobile command center at Miller Field in Staten Island, N.Y. to help consumers with insurance questions or complaints.

A department representative there says the mobile command center assisted over 120 people. Most of the questions people asked concerned how to go through the process of filing a claim, according to the representative.

A call to the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance for an update on how the department is handling this crisis was not immediately returned.

Special Reports /

Sandy Closes N.Y. Regulator’s Office; Dept. Extends Filing Deadlines

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