Several new faces were mixed in with veteran volunteers this year during the recent Catastrophe Response Center (CRC) mock exercise in Jacksonville – a familiar yet critical part of Citizens’ annual storm season preparations.
It takes a group of both experienced volunteers and newcomers to help us bring new ideas and to make sure we have fresh processes and a different perspective.
Catastrophe response volunteers assembled near Citizens’ Jacksonville office and quickly split into three teams, pitched tents, set up chairs and tables, and assembled their computer workstations. Participants worked feverishly to transform the site into three separate, fully functional, and well-managed response centers.
Focus on Preparation
A focus for this year’s exercise was to show the many new volunteers what to expect when setting up the CRCs as well as what the journey is like for the policyholder – from meeting our Citizens greeters at the entrance to being issued, when applicable, an on-the-spot Additional Living Expense (ALE) check to begin their recovery process. Training was made more practical by discussing real-life scenarios and how to choose the best approach for each situation.
The hands-on approach resonated with staff because they could use the mock environment to address concerns in real time and watch as the resolution steps worked successfully through each station of the process.
Some new additions to this year’s CRCs include a versatile van joining the fleet, which will allow our teams to recon impacted areas ahead of deployments. Citizens can immediately set up a smaller operation to help policyholders while waiting for the arrival of the larger field service vehicles at the site.
Citizens Is Ready
Despite not having to deploy any CRCs in 2025, Citizens’ catastrophe response operations have become well-tuned thanks to repetition in recent years. In addition to this annual exercise, Citizens has also gotten significant in-the-field experience as recently as 2024, with several CRC deployments required following storm activity.
In 2024, Citizens set up CRCs for a rare event, Winter Storm Finn, as well as three hurricanes that made landfall in Florida: Debby, Helene, and Milton. Combined, the CRCs served 3,546 customers.
That storm season continued a decade-long trend of significant tropical weather activity, triggering catastrophe responses to several storms, most notably hurricanes Irma in 2017 and Ian in 2022.
Weather forecasters predict a slightly less active storm season in the Atlantic Ocean basin for 2026, with eight to 14 named storms. Of those, three to six storms are forecast to develop into hurricanes, including one to three becoming major hurricanes. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), an average season has 14 named storms, seven of which are hurricanes, including three major hurricanes.
Staying Informed
Citizens prepares year-round to ensure response readiness when our policyholders need us most. To help our policyholders stay informed, Citizens' website features a Storm Tracker feed, which delivers real-time National Hurricane Center updates directly to your desktop and mobile device. Citizens also offers storm preparation and response information through Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) at @citizens_fla.
