jstuart1:
LIke most people I thought I was covered pretty well. Sounds like maybe not.
I'd really like to hear more from other people's experiences with hurricane related claims.
Do NOT make that assumption. The federal flood program is based on the creek rising from rain over a very limited area. It is not designed to address the "earth tilting" of a major named storm.
Also be aware that in order to get the full $250,000 flood policy payout you would need to sustain a loss in excess of $2,000,000. Nowhere on the coast will a flood policy payout currently being offered on both structure and contents even come close to covering the minimal rebuilding of an unfinished but weathertight structure alone! In the mean time while the PTBs are busy pi$$ing in each others soup the victims are camped out on their slabs swatting mosquitos, trying to figure out how to pay their mortgage so they won't loose the land too, and cussing the politicians.
BTW If it hadn't been for the aid provided by several religous groups (the Menonnites and The River Ministries come to mind as being the first on the spot, and among the most helpful in The Pass) the victims would have starved to death before FEMA even bothered to show up! If you live in a hurricane target area (i.e. Brownsville, TX around to Bangor, ME) have a serious heart to heart with your insurance guy and get the DETAILS of the company payout policy way up front including a written detailed definition in real english of what each term in the policy means. Then prepare to survive on your own with NO police protection, potable water, sewage, power, communication services, or food stores for at least 3 weeks! The other thing you need to do is start a DETAILED inventory of your house on a spreadsheet including every book by title, sock, shirt and pencil. Take that spreadsheet and a CD of digital pictures with you when you evacuate! The slabbers can't do an inventory now, and are getting very little consideration for content damage.
Other religous groups including large relief crews from the Episcopal and Catholic churches, as well as many other denominations, are working very hard and making a very real difference in the victims' lives. The Red Cross has been of very limited help on the ground because they have too much paperwork before aid is provided. What is provided is welcome when it finally gets there, but their beurocracy is as overwhelmed as the Fed's.
OTOH I still haven't seen the ACLU, NAACP, SPLC and other groups who have been tearing down the church/community fabric in this country for decades provide so much as a sandwich on the coast.
The Pass should have phone and cable communications restored by the first of the year, we hope. Potable water and maybe even real sewage treatment will be several months after that. Of over 3000 habitable structures in town before Katrina ~130 are repairable, the rest are simply gone. Most roads are now clear for passage, at least one vehicle at a time, with debris piles 10 to 15' high on both sides of the road. Power is back to those few houses undamaged enough so it can be reconnected. The rest and hardest hit areas are having the infrastructure rebuilt from scratch. Many residents are getting "appointments" with the insurance company adjusters "sometime in '06". Bay St Louis and Waveland MS were hit even harder.
FT