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Business Is Booming For Insurance Adjusters Thanks To Irene

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (CBS) - Many people who suffer storm damage don't call their insurance company first, but an independent set of eyes.

"I've probably seen 40 or 50 since mid-Sunday, way over a normal week for me," Novick Adjustment Company president Michael White (right) says.

He's come to Pat Leberman's house on the bank of the Schuylkill, a raised dwelling that still had water coursing through the first floor, conditions were worse out front in the ground-level garage.

"We had to go or else we wouldn't have gotten the car out. You can see in the garage, there's probably five, six feet where the cinderblocks are so that's how deep it got down there."

White surveys, measures and estimates, preparing his numbers for comparison with the insurance company's, knowing that Leberman has flood insurance, but...

"A lot of what we're seeing is flooded basements and a majority of those claims are not covered by insurance."

White says Irene was wet rather than windy.

Reported by John Ostapkovich, KYW Newsradio

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