Massive flooding. Widespread insect infestations. Devastating tornadoes.
It’s a good thing those things don’t happen in New England.
Condominium trustees and homeowners who thought New England was immune to such catastrophic events have received wake-up calls in recent years. New Hampshire residents haven’t yet forgotten the floodwaters that rushed through their neighborhoods a few years ago. Pest control companies have been battling armies of irritating bedbugs. And just weeks ago, a band of tornadoes left large swaths of Massachusetts’ communities in ruins.
Add to those woes the destructive ice storm of 2008, unrelenting snowfalls of last winter and spiking oil prices of recent months, and association boards may feel they’re rolling the dice when they sit down to develop an annual budget. How can a community prepare for emergencies and the vagaries of nature?
The first step, of course, is to be sure that the property is properly insured. “You have to consider the worst that can happen … a fire, or a tornado, or those coastal tsunamis. You want to be sure you have it right, to make sure you’re adequately insured,” says Chris Snow at Bernier & Snow Insurance Agency in Rochester, New Hampshire.
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