Insurance firm Freisenburch-Meyer is dealing with an estimated 18 months’ worth of claims in the space of a week after Bermuda was hit by two storms.

Now staff at the Front Street firm are processing claims and visiting clients whose homes suffered in Tropical Storm Fay or Hurricane Gonzalo to assess the damage and help get repairs done as fast as possible.

The firm’s Paul Maccoy said: “Right now all the insurance will be swamped and contractors will be working very hard.

“People want to get their roofs repaired and we try to give priority to where the damage is directly impacting on people’s lives.

“A garden wall can wait, but if your bedroom roof is lying on the lawn, that’s something else.”

And he added: “We’re all scrambling right now because it’s probably going to rain within the next couple of days.”

Mr Maccoy said: “We are going to be dealing with files for months and months — but I think people realise that these things take time.

“It’s basically a year-and-a-half’s work dumped in our laps in a week.”

The Royal Gazette joined staff as they visited homes to assess damage.

Stuart Brown and wife Corey Masters-Brown called the firm after his waterfront home, yard, garden walls and dock were all damaged in Gonzalo.

His boat — which was hit by another vessel that broke free of its moorings and smashed into it at the height of the hurricane — was badly damaged.

Mr Brown said the, house, which is at least 250 years old, said: “It’s stood up pretty well. When a tree came down outside, I was praying. But I think we were damn lucky.”

He added: “When they said they would call in 48 hours, I sniggered a bit — but they were here within 48 hours. It’s refreshing.”

Freisenbruch Meyer customer liaison officer Lt Col Patrick Outerbridge inspected the house and said he would be calling in specialist surveyors to check on potential structural damage to walls.

He added: “We’ve been working very hard — but this is what we do and we want to help as many people we can as fast as we can.”

Some claims already made to the firm involve damage totalling “hundreds of thousands”.

But Col Outerbridge said: “This is not one of the bigger ones — but there is work that needs to be done.”

Mr Maccoy said that after people called with claims, a contact form was filled in and passed on to teams on the ground, which have been bolstered by insurance specialists and surveyors from overseas.

And he said that people should take pictures of serious damage and measure holes in roofs to help the firm process claims faster.

Mr Maccoy said: “If we’re going to pay under the policy, there needs to be substantiation of the damage, how it was caused and that the cost of repairs is fair and reasonable.

“The clients will be asked to provide estimates and we would look at those estimates and either determine ourselves if it’s fair or reasonable or consult a professional marine surveyor or a quantity surveyor.

“At the end of the day, we need to be able to account for money given out and that there was a fair entitlement.

“the more information people can provide to substantiate their claims, the more we can help them, which is what we want to do.”

And he said: “People need to get an authorisation before they get work done.”