Replies

I'm sorry I offended you and for your damage. I had minor damage from a TS this summer but didn't claim it because my rates would go up and it was just a little over my deductable. My agent also tells me that I don't need flood insurance either. Why do they do that? It's not really that much and it only takes one time. I have no problem with helping people with damage like yours but abuse is happening.

The insurance companies tell you that flood insurance isn't necessary because they don't want to pay you for flood, even though the government subsidizes nearly all flood insurance, and because they use government tables to determine what is and isn't a flood plain. In our case, we're high enough and far enough inland, that unless God decided it was time to wash things again, no amount of rainfall or river flooding could touch our place. A 25 foot wall of water being pushed by Katrina changed the way we think down here. They claim it's a 500 year event and there is no known record of a lot of our areas ever being covered by water before. There was just no way to plan for something like this.

I apologize for being thin-skinned - I read the same type stories about FEMA in Florida last year and had similar thoughts. Since FEMA was the big provider with $2K to date (another $665.00 from the Red Cross and almost $1200.00 in an emergency food stamp program round out the help so far. I'm one of the luckier ones in this whole story and I've spent over $11K of my own money trying to just make the place livable so far (studs and insulation, a makeshift kitchen and bathroom and an air mattress to sleep on). It's hard to imagine that my story is one of the happier ones, but it's true. Many folks will never recover as they are too old to have time to make up for the huge cash drains and move into retirement. Since I'm capable of doing much of the repair work, my wife and I can take our time and piece the house back together over the next couple years; if we had to pay for labor, we'd be sunk. Pray for those that are in really dire straits.

God Bless