I was in Hurricane Andrew. I was stationed @ Homestead AFB (8th Air Wing, which is now closed because of the hurricane. I don't care what people think about a hurricane 15 years ago... I was there, and it was terrifying! It was practically a 30-50 mile wide lawnmower that went east to west for 100 miles across Florida... ironically Homestead AFB was dead center in the eye. I remember that Turkey Point had a crack in it's insulating concrete (Turkey Point was a nuclear reactor about 3 miles southeast of Homestead AFB)... and the only buildings still left stand (on base) were pretty much the dorms (barracks).... but even they were annihilated on the inside.
I have much sympathy for this woman (she was elderly) and I can understand her embarrassment.. living in an upper price range of property (Cutler Ridge)... FEMA screwed us over then... The insurance companies tried in all their power to say that Hurricanes/flooding wasn't in the agreement... and eventually many went bankrupt (goes with the territory, I guess)...
Anyway, I am glad, even after 15 years, she finally got something better ;)
Many folks have not moved back because they didn't have flood insurance, and their insurance companies are not paying for the damage because they're saying it was all caused by water. In some instances, that's true, but in many cases, the winds had blown the houses apart before the water ever arrived. The problem for the homeowners has been PROVING that to the satisfaction of the insurance companies. There were some who bought flood insurance, at the urging of their insurance agents, even though they didn't live in what was normally considered a flood zone. The agents caught flack from some folks for trying to sell people coverage they didn't need, but those agents were universally loved by their clients after the storm, because there was no question about their coverage.