Following Irma’s Roof Damage, Floridians Face Long Wait, Claim Disputes

The day after Hurricane Irma passed, when water still shot up from broken mains and fallen trees covered most roads, Ken Kelly and a few of his roofers took a first peek around town. They wanted to get some idea of how the shingles, tiles and tops of homes and buildings fared during one of the worst storms to hit Southwest Florida in decades. "We thought that this was going to be a two-year storm," said Kelly, president of Kelly Roofing based in Bonita Springs. And now, after more than four months, 26,000 calls for service, thousands of estimates and who knows how many hours of back-and-forth with insurance companies, Kelly still thinks his first estimate is about right: It will be two years before the roofs of Southwest Florida are back to their pre-Irma state.