Through both monetary donations and the collection of needed supplies, the North American Title Group (NATG) and its affiliated companies have become an integral part of the recovery effort for Hurricane Harvey victims.
NATG’s parent company, Lennar Corp., pledged $1 million to the United Way’s Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund, and set up a matching pledge program for all donations made by associates, friends, families, trade partners and customers.
Additionally, the company’s Houston offices are collecting water and toiletry items; children's items such as diapers, clothing, cribs, playpens and toys; clothing of all sizes; and blankets and towels. The items are distributed to local shelters and to the United Way donation facility in Houston.
“Within days, more than $350,000 had been donated by individual Lennar and NATG associates, friends, family, trade partners and customers to the relief effort in Houston,” NATG president and CEO Tom Fischer told The Title Report.
“It is heartwarming how many people responded so quickly to this effort. But I can’t emphasize enough how important and significant the feet-on-the-ground rescue efforts and care and concern of neighbor for neighbor has been in Houston,” Fisher added.
“As Lennar CEO Stuart Miller so eloquently pointed out last week, we believe our responsibility to our communities across the country consists of far more than just delivering quality homes and efficient title and closing services,” Fisher said. “These are the communities where we live and raise our families, too, and we feel a tremendous responsibility to give back to those communities when such dire needs arise.”
Lennar Corp. also encouraged associates to donate funds to assist Lennar and NATG associates in Houston with their cleanup efforts. Individual NATC offices collected cleanup materials to assist small businesses and residents.
Preparing for the storm
As Harvey approached the Gulf Coast, NATG sent multiple communications to its customers and agents via email and social media postings
“Our first concern was for the safety of our associates, agents and customers in Houston and surrounding areas,” Fischer said. “We have disaster protocols that were quickly put into place to protect our people, our offices and our customer information. It was a drill that we had to duplicate just weeks later in preparation for Hurricane Irma as it headed for the Florida coast and our corporate headquarters in Miami.”
The company said it sent out special alerts to agents throughout Texas and Florida to advise about closings and provide instructions on how to proceed with underwriting inquiries and remittances.
“In situations like Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma, we generally advise our agents to delay mailing or overnighting anything to the affected offices, including remittances, although wires can be sent as usual,” North American Title Insurance Co. President Emilio Fernandez said. “Fortunately, our agents can continue to direct underwriting questions to the normal email addresses, since we have counsel across the country monitoring these inquiries and can respond to all emails very quickly.”
“In addition to staff support around the country, our IT department is well prepared for these events,” Fischer said. “We have cloud-based back-up and secondary systems that allow other geographies to carry the ball during a shut down in a particular area.”