Los Angeles-based Farmers Insurance and Team Rubicon, a nonprofit that unites veterans with first responders to provide emergency response services, recently announced a collaboration that will integrate the skills of America's veterans into the Farmer's disaster response efforts.
Beginning with the aftermath of the next major disaster — whether earthquake, fire, hurricane or tornado — Team Rubicon will supplement Farmers' on-the-ground relief efforts by offering Farmers' customers assistance in the areas of home repair and debris management, such as securing properties to prevent looting, searching for valuables and tarping roofs to alleviate further damage.
Up to 100 veterans will be deployed when disaster strikes
Team Rubicon, which is based in El Segundo, Calif., will also support local authorities as requested with disaster readiness, relief, recovery and search and rescue missions. With up to 100 veterans at a time deployed to an affected area, Team Rubicon will provide disaster relief services to the local community while working with Farmers.
In the aftermath of an event, the bulk of critical first-response activity is "people-first." Safety-related precautions such as cutting power, searching for missing people and controlling access to the area are at the top of local authorities' priorities. While the critical "people-first" efforts are underway, there generally are too few resources available to help people mitigate further property damage.
Farmers Insurance Mobile Claims Center (Photo: Farmers Insurance via PRNewsFoto)
Quick action to protect property
It can take weeks for contractors to gain access to a property to effectively remove debris or trees, to secure tarps to roofs that stop weather-related elements from doing further damage or simply to board up lesser-damaged homes to prevent looting. Team Rubicon will work alongside Farmers to help customers by taking quick action that protects their property for the long-term.
"Farmers has a long-standing reputation as being the first insurance group on the ground when something happens, but we also have a deep commitment to military veterans. Our collaboration with Team Rubicon uniquely merges the two in a way that will benefit our customers during their time of greatest need," said Roy Smith, president of personal lines for Farmers Insurance.
Military-friendly employer
Farmers will kick-start the efforts with a $125,000 contribution to support Team Rubicon's mission of uniting the skills and experiences of military veterans with first responders to rapidly deploy emergency response teams.
Farmers said it strives to be a military-friendly employer and claims that one in four Farmers agents is a military veteran. Last year, Farmers was designated one of the top 150 military employers and one of the top 50 military spouse employers by MilitaryFriendly.com.
Related: Mitchell International partners with Veterans2Work to help veterans launch insurance careers
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