If you lost everything in a Hurricane..

[Jims5543]

How long would it take before you were back on your feet?

To expand on that question what if a family member of yours were in that situation?


Why I am asking: Because it was reported on the news that 7,000 residents in FEMA trailers from Katrina had to be evacuated. I made a comment on another car forum that it seemed excessive to still be in a FEMA trailer 3 years after the storm. I got blasted and was told I have no idea what it would be like to loose everything and have no money.

I personally think its not about stuff or money but more about you.

I was also told by one board member that their grandmother was in one for 2 years and her church finally built her a new home for free. I had a whole other set of opinions about that one firstly, how come a church had to help her when it was obvious she has family that can help but did not.

I think people just like living off the govt for free. but what do I know I have never lost everything.

[onewhippedpuppy]

For starters, the wise cover their ass with insurance, be it renters or homeowners. That's one point.

Lets be honest here, everyone got money from FEMA after Katrina, especially the poor. So you have money to replace the essentials, you have a home to live in (TEMPORARILY), now it's time to go get a job and rebuild your life. It might be callous, but I think most who haven't have done so is by choice. NO had a pretty significant welfare population already, now they just have a new excuse.

I can tell you for sure, people that lose everything in a KS tornado certainly take a much different approach to rebuilding. There were never FEMA trailers in Greensburg because people took care of themselves and each other. Everyone there has either chosen to rebuild or moved elsewhere to start over.

[URY914]

I view the trailers as another form of public housing. Unless the are burning some people never leave them.

Yes 3 years is WAY to long to be in them. There should be a time limit.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

For starters, the wise cover their ass with insurance, be it renters or homeowners. That's one point.

Wrongo.

One of my best friends lives in Key West and has been there for about 10 years. He lost literally everything except the clothes on his back and what he had in his car due to hurricanes Katrina and Wilma hitting the Keys a few years ago. His renter's insurance basically told him to f off. No joke. He's been fighting with them for three years and hasn't seen Dollar #1. Good news is he's been able to rebuild and is back on his feet again and doing fine, but it's doubtful he'll ever see anything from insurance.

Unfortunately I think insurance is a sucker bet more often than not. They'll just try and weasel out of paying on legitimate claims - I've been through this myself now (when my 951 burned up they initially tried to hide behind a "U137 exclusion" - remember that?) and I have another friend who's been getting screwed for years on a medical claim - he hasn't seen anything from his insurance either.

I carry only what I'm required to by law. I prefer to take care of myself. If bad things happen to me, then they happen and it's up to me to rebuild - not be dependent on someone else with a proven history of slamming doors in peoples' faces.

[Dantilla]

I've been to New Orleans twice since Katrina, doing volunteer constructuon work with a group of skilled construction guys (and a few gals), and have found two types of people:

-Those that roll up their sleeves with a smile on their face, and work their tail off putting life back together again, and,

-Those that sit on their butt, wondering why nobody's given them a new house yet.

My other observation is that over 90% of volunteers coming down are church groups.

[onewhippedpuppy]

True sometimes Jeff, but many times not so much. No doubt that if there's a way to wiggle off of the hook, an insurance company will try. However, I could pay on my homeowner's insurance for something like 250 years before I've paid what my house is worth. Overall insurance is cheap, anything I can't replace with a check has insurance. If you are careful with your coverage and understand your policy, the insurance company doesn't have any room to wiggle away.

[Tobra]

Depends on how long it took to get the office up and running. The building I am in is pretty stout and well designed, probably would do well in a hurricane. I imagine the facade would be blown off, but at least it would still be there. No worries about hurricanes, minimal concern for tornado, and risk of major earthquake is low.

The temerity of those bible swingers, to actually going and working for free. They will have to be paid standard wages for those hours or it is an unfair business competition to the local trades. I actually saw something about a law that is expiring that protected charities or volunteer groups from having to pay these wages, which are coincidentally the exact same as the union wage

[bell]

before michelle and i moved to florida we had our ohio state farm agent get us a "quote" as to what the change in insurance was going to cost us, (our agent of 9 years retired and transfered our policy to the new agent)....her response was "not much more than ohio".......well it turns out she never even f'ing checked and lied to us....
our car insurance more than doubled.....and we came to find out that state farm is writing NO new renters/homeowners policies.....period, and will be cancelling 50,000 existing policies by the end of the year due to "massive payout" from previous hurricanes.
to say i was/am pissed would be an understatement, my old agent recieved a VERY angry, mean, unprofessional phone call from me after i found all this out and was already here....nothing to be done other than find a new insurer to deal with.....
i transfered my cars with sf but will be severing all ties with state farm over the coming months when my policies expire..........what a waste of 9 years with state farm, in ohio they were fine and paid quickly on the 2 claims i've had.....but it only took one lying pos agent to burn the bridge........

now the big question is who to trust with my new policies?.........

[Jims5543]

State Farm Quadrupled my Homeowners insurance for 1 year then dropped me.

I have since pulled all my business insurance all my car insurance from them and they will never get my business again. I had been a client to them for over 20 years and they screwed me over in the end and I made 1 $1800 claim in the 1st storm and none for the 2 that followed nor did I have a claim for "Killer Tropical Storm Fay".

Their loss.

To ask again:

If you lost EVERYTHING and mu some freak occurrence you lost all your money and your job changed overnight to a $10 an hour grunt job, how long before your on your own or would you even want assistance or could you pull off getting on your feet right away?

Lets say the Gov't threw you $2500 could you make a go at it? I know I could in a heartbeat and if I lost everything in NO I would not be there anymore.

[Red Baron]

We (family) lost several homes and everything in them during Katrina. All were rebuilt in spite of getting screwed by our Insurance companies within a year after Katrina.

I since moved to Georgia and most of our family evacuated here for Gustav.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by Dantilla

I've been to New Orleans twice since Katrina, doing volunteer constructuon work with a group of skilled construction guys (and a few gals), and have found two types of people:

-Those that roll up their sleeves with a smile on their face, and work their tail off putting life back together again, and,

-Those that sit on their butt, wondering why nobody's given them a new house yet.

My other observation is that over 90% of volunteers coming down are church groups.

There but for the grace of God go I.

You nailed it. The few bad apples make the rest look bad.
While I haven't went to NO, I've sent money and helped gather and shipped tons of construction supplies and helped pay for others to go there and start to rebuild a very small part of the city. All though our church.
For years we've been sending humanitarian groups to Mexico, an Apache reservation and India, I've been on several of those trips.
We saw what happened in NO and a couple years ago we shifted our focus and decided to try and help people closer to home.
Me, being an insensitive non-caring so and so, came to the conclusion that most people there are trying to help themselves and a small percentage of others are simply milking the system for everything they can get.
I'm a voting member of our church board and in the planning meetings insisted we focus on helping those who try and help themselves. I made it clear that I thought helping those who won't help themselves is a total waste of resources and wouldn't be any real help at all, they'd just sit there and wait for more help.
There are too many others who are more deserving and for them, our efforts would actually make a difference.

I'd also like to say that if I lived there I'd be tempted to go postal at city hall.
I'm not exaggerating when i say that has to be the most corrupt local government I'd ever been in contact with.
I talked to nearly a dozen people there trying to get permits or coordinating the projects and basically came away with the feeling that most of these so-called civil servants were more concerned with how much of a cut do they get than helping their community. "Special fee" is how one person described it. I asked what the special fee was for, he told me that there are so many groups coming down there and calling his office that it requires him to work overtime and he doan work overtime for free.

[Dantilla]

If I had to go back to framing houses to feed my family, I would. I would probably end up working for myself again, just like before, and eventually be back to goofing off with silly little German cars.

[Dantilla]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

I talked to nearly a dozen people there trying to get permits or coordinating the projects and basically came away with the feeling that most of these so-called civil servants were more concerned with how much of a cut do they get than helping their community.

Last year, there was some extreme, but localized flooding here in Washington State. I was part of a group (one of many church groups) that showed up at the "command center" and offered our help. When we finished installing new insulation in our assigned home, we needed an inspection before hanging any sheetrock. A guy whipped out his cell phone, and the county inspector was there within 45 minutes- On a Saturday! The inspector told me that there was so much work to be done, he offered to volunteer his time to make sure people could put their houses together. The county said he could not volunteer, since he needed to be covered by state industrial, so they would go ahead and pay him to work on Saturday.

Rural farmers know how to get things done!

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by Dantilla

Last year, there was some extreme, but localized flooding here in Washington State. I was part of a group (one of many church groups) that showed up at the "command center" and offered our help. When we finished installing new insulation in our assigned home, we needed an inspection before hanging any sheetrock. A guy whipped out his cell phone, and the county inspector was there within 45 minutes- On a Saturday! The inspector told me that there was so much work to be done, he offered to volunteer his time to make sure people could put their houses together. The county said he could not volunteer, since he needed to be covered by state industrial, so they would go ahead and pay him to work on Saturday.

Rural farmers know how to get things done!

When there's a natural disaster around here, people from the entire region show up to donate their time and service. There's a reason why the clean-up starts immediately after the search & rescue. People donate time and money, companies donate workers and equipment, things get done and people get help. People helping each other, with no financial incentive.

[Dantilla]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

When there's a natural disaster around here, people from the entire region show up to donate their time and service. People helping each other, with no financial incentive.

Bingo.

[island911]

hmmm. . .How long would it take me to figure out NOT to live where there is a Disaster Season . . .on the seaside town BELOW sea level?

Seriously, WTH are people thinking?