with our insurance company/FEMA on our Sandy claim for both real and personal property and the checks are in the bank. It is over. It took us just a few days shy of four months. Our insurance agent has told us we are exceptionally lucky. Tens of thousands haven't even gotten to first base yet.
What did we learn?
We learned that the traditional advice of having 6 months living expenses in a readily accessible account is so inadequate as to be ridiculous. That is not nearly enough. Sure, maybe, it works for short-term beign situations but not a true disaster. Maybe, it flies you across the country for a funeral, or something similar but real emergency - phooney. Here's why...
It took nearly four months to settle the insurance claim. What happened during those four months? We lived in a refugee hotel for the first 6-7 weeks. That was not a fun experience although we are most grateful. Many others do/did not even have that option. The hotel was not gratis - yes, there was a disaster relief discount but it was still in excess of $125/day. In our area, the hospitality industry offers few, if any, of those $79/night accomodations. Most days, we made a dozen trips to/from the house so it was not practical to be living 20-50 miles away in a cheaper area. Right there is a considerable amount of money and we haven't eaten yet. Our room had no microwave and no refrigerator although during Week 5 we were able to get both and it helped tremendously. In a disaster, one does not have the luxury to "shop around" for a room that suits your needs. You take what's available and count yourself among the fortunate. Our hotel also did not have a kitchen so no meals were available except they had cartons of Yoplait Yogurt, boxed cold cereal with cartons of milk, mini stale bagels and coffee/tea in the mornings.
Most, if not all, restaurants gave us discounts on meals but it was still expensive to eat out seven days/week. That six months savings account is going down fast....
And, we haven't even started to recover from the storm.
What to do about the house?
We had done some smart things prior to Sandy. A couple days before landfall, I phoned our agent and asked tons of questions including how to contact them should their office be disabled due to storm damage. Thanks goodness I did that because our agent was flooded out, same as us. The difference between us and most of their other clients? I had phoned ahead so we had their emergency off-site number to call immediately after the storm. The result? We had a remediation crew at our home on Day Three Post Sandy. (Thousands of people are STILL waiting in the queue to get a remediation crew to their property.)
The dollar wheel is really spinning now with the remediation crew on site. We had a crew of 8-9 at the house seven days/week for three weeks straight. They worked from first light to dusk, paid by the hour, when it became unsafe to work longer without light. To keep them "motivated", DH frequently brought them coffee/donuts in the morning and/or pizza at lunch. Not every day but several times/week we did one or the other. Often, on those days, we did not eat anything to save money. (It's OK, we are well fed and going without for a day didn't hurt either of us.)
While the remediation crew was still doing their thing...we were interviewing contractors (and, in our particular case, antique restorers). Again, because we had been able to act quickly, we snagged one of the few available contractors. We are in a housing recession (or have been until very recently). Therefore, there are not nearly as many contractors to go around as there were, say, 6 years ago. The contractor, however, wants hard cash in his hand before he starts ordering materials and hiring labor - who would blame him with all the storm horror stories. He's uninterested in insurance money. So, again out comes our checkbook.
While all this is happening we are also fortunate to have had a very early visit from both FEMA and our insurance adjuster. That was, again, because we'd phoned our insurance agent pre-Sandy and gotten that vital emergency phone number. So, we were at the top of the adjuster's list. In just my immediate Sandy Disaster Area, there are 2,000 adjusters working 350,000 claims. DH took a morning and drove to an area with power and got us a magic FEMA number online within a couple days of the storm. Our adjuster, from OK, was terrific. That was, probably, luck of the draw. FEMA set up a trailor in my town within a week of Sandy and that was a huge help going forward.
We have no FEMA woes to report. They did exactly as our policy said they would do plus giving us some assistance with temporary living expenses. Our bank fouled up the works about this time by changing their online banking system so our FEMA assistance was delayed but that was not FEMA's fault. We have zero complaints about FEMA. Those people were from all over the country giving of their time to help us. Unfortunately, many expected FEMA to do things that are outside their ability to help. For instance, if you have a second home that is unlivable - FEMA cannot help you. Please don't waste their precious time asking when they could be helping somebody with a valid claim. We overheard those conversations dozens of times. I felt badly for the FEMA folks. People were harrassing them and there was nothing in their authority to do to help. Or, somebody's basement had been flooded - FEMA won't cover a furnished basement, period. So, if you have a Man Cave down there, best get supplemental insurance. They will cover furnace, washer/dryer and that's about it for the basement.
Back to our house...the contractor has started reconstruction. In our case, the adjuster, town inspector and our contractor agreed we needed to tear out everything from the floor 4' up the walls. Well, gosh, most of what we own falls in that range. (Oh, FEMA was also very helpful in recommending new products to use such as this new insulation that in the event we are flooded again can be taken out, hosed off and replaced. Good stuff from FEMA.) So, other than what was on the closet shelves, kitchen upper cabinets, etc. was lost. But, everything except what the remediation company originally tore out to halt further damage was still there - so the packing started. The remediation company handled the packing with gangs of people tossing everything into boxes and out to a POD in our driveway. It was chaos. Utter chaos. Damaged things were tossed into boxes along with the undamaged. Time was the important factor - just time. Tens of thousands of people need this remediation crew when they are finished at our place.
Now, the fun starts. The adjuster gives us the PROOF OF CLAIM. That's in caps because it's like the big elephant in the room. My DH is an attorney and we had to read it several times before we understood how they would scr@w us if they could.
Normally, FEMA only gives claimants 60 days to file this monsterous claim form. Because the damage from Sandy was humongous FEMA waived that and increased the filing deadline to 365 days. I'm sure that will be a saving grace to many, many people. Sixty days would have been impossible. Combined, we spent literally several hundred hours working on our Proof of Claim.
Construction on our house continued but we haven't received our claim approval so we keep paying out of OUR pocket. Believe me, those six months living expenses everybody tells you to have are LONG gone and we are in to other funds. As it turned out, we rebuilt and refurnished our entire home from personal funds. We just received settlement a couple days ago. After the dust settled, we came out okay - actually, we came out very okay. If you never do much with personal household finances please please do at least the following...
1. Keep every single receipt. That includes for that new wash cloth. Even the pair of socks. And, yes, the new refrigerator. Every single receipt for every single thing in your home. If you do not do this you will be sorry if disaster ever visits your neighborhood. Our adjuster told me that less than 1% of people can PROVE loss and that's largely why we are settled after only four months.
2. Take photos of everything. Open the cupboards, dresser drawers, snap, snap, snap. Don't forget under the bathroom vanities or the garage. If you own it - record it both by receipt and by photo.
3. Increase your emergency savings. We blew through a heart stopping amount of cash to get our house rebuilt. If we had not had the money - who knows where we'd be today. Not here, back at home, that's for sure. No new LC dutch oven, new pair of shoes, iPad, etc. is worth it. In a disaster, money talks like nothing else. If you're not already, get on a budget and start saving. Believe me, we are not part of the one-percent crowd. We've just made serious decisions to build varied assets over the years including DH going back to school for his JD degree.
4. Make friends with your local businessmen NOW when you don't need them. Then, when you DO need them - they will remember you purchased your new stove, car, vacuum, baby blanket, etc. from their store and bend over backwards to help you in your time of need. Then, don't forget about them again. Drop by with a treat and say, "Thanks". Community before corporations. Mom & Pop Diner before Red Lobster. Your local cookware store before Sur La Table or amazon. Your locally owned Ace Hardware or local flooring store over Lowe's. Believe me, you will more than make up the price difference should you experience something like Sandy or the wildfires in CO last year. And, you'll get to know your community neighbors. Win win. Let corporations fend for themselves. They will do just fine without you. They almost always do.
So much has been destroyed. I don't believe in my lifetime it will be all repaired. Even our coastline is now foreign. I don't even know if we can go boating this summer - the Coast Guard is still hauling houses, washers/dryers, oil tanks, BBQs, etc. from LIS. The harbors need dredging. There are new shoals, rocks, etc. that are shipping hazards. The Coast Guard needs to remap our shoreline and that will take some time and dollars. I'm fairly sure our area will be one of the first because we have the USCG Academy, a US submarine base, a submarine manufacturer, and a nuclear plant within five miles but still it won't be by May 2013, I'm also sure. I have no idea what the lost summer revenue to local businesses will be but I'm worried about my town's future.
Anyway, remember you don't need to be in a coastal area for disaster to happen.
/tricia
triciaeOriginal Author
mustangs81
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