An update from St.Bernard and Buddy and Marie

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BUDDY

BUDDY

SPFG, Supreme Picture Framing God
Founding Member
Joined
Nov 23, 1997
Posts
11,932
Location
Mandeville, LA USA
Business
retired
First I'd Like to thank every one who has helped me and my family thus far and that includes offers i have not accepted and even Insurance company's i have paid for. I also am deeply appreciative of the help i received from Red Cross who has paid my hotel bill for a month and the unemployment office who has registerd my wife and son and even is registering my mother in law while attempting to qualify her for dis ability.

I also would like to thank FEMA for the $2000 advances they have sent to my son and mother inlaw and the qualifieing for food stamps fpr my entire group.

I even would like to thank the texas branch of walgreens who have filled our perscriptions with out paper work and mostly without cost.So as you can see alot of what you are hearing may not be true.

But now for the bad news. From what we have been able to see from web pics our shop was immersed under about 7-8 feet of water our home was flooded to a similar depth but we can't determine the exact depth nor if it has drained completely yet. we are still not being allowed to return to our area even for a cursury inspection.

There is even some surious considerstion being batored about ,as to Bull dozeing all the homes ans completly rebuilding if insurance and funds permitt.( Isn't it amazing that CNN didn't even know where St.Bernard was and then Soladad thought it was a 3 hour ride away.)Wonder what they will think now?
BUDDY
 
At the risk of sounding like a Pollyanna, this could be one of those freeing events of your life. Is there anything you have ever wanted to do, but thought that you couldn't just walk away from all that you had? Live in another town in an apartment? Buy an RV and see the country? Move to Tahiti? I sometimes ponder what I would do if my house totally burned down and we started again with nothing but insurance money. Or all the family were wiped out in a plague and only I were left to carry on? (I know the answer to the last one... I'd move to Sicily. But I would never leave my family behind to do such a thing.) What you you do?
 
I am glad to hear that you are all being taken care of so well. It seems that when I hear about someone in the midst of it all, it is decent news. I am on another internet board where there are several members from the Katrina area. Reports there are very similar to yours.

Thanks for checking in and letting us know.
 
We finally got to see Marie's mother's house,the house on Perrin,and The shop.They still won't allow us to go into the neighborhood where our home is located (Newport Drive,Meraux).

Marie's Mom's house only had about two feet inside the house( it is raised and the actual water depth at the street level was 6 feet) but everything inside is destroyed from the moving water,especially if furnishings weren't solid wood or metal.If partcle wood they just crunbled. Everything floated around and fell in the 2 feet of standing water.

The same is true of the Perrin house Our older house which is where our middle sone lives now) only worse since one of the front windows of a 13 ft. section of panels was broken and the back slideing doors were also and the water was more like 6-7 feet deep. So everything is a toatl mess.

The Shop was the most amazeing even without any opening the water reached about 6-7 feet inside and 8-9 feet at the street and everythig is pushed to the front door includeing the ceiling tiles .It was so clutered I could even gain access without empting the shop and I didn't have time just yet,since we were only given 8 hours per day for two days per section ,but we were told to keep it to 4hrs. for exposure limits.

We tried pulling every string and contact we knew to get in to our house but the DOE(?) has blocked all access from Paris Rd. down due to vapors and breathing hazords from a oil spill at Murphey even though it isn't really in our immediate neighborhood.

So we'll try again when our house is scheduled ( Sept.27-28) unless they clear everything and move it up.But we are not able to run back and forth with the grest distance from Corpus to St.Bernard.We are trying to find a 3 bedroom house to rent or lease closer to the houses so we can go back and forth ,but we don't know what we will get from our insurance yet.

The exteriors of the houses are no way indicative of what you will find inside even if there was only a few feet high of water above the floor.

But we are all pysically healthy,and appreciate the thoughts and prayers and support.
BUDDY
 
Buddy, after all the insurance information that's been circulating on the news, I've learned alot. Did any of you have flood insurance?
 
Janet ,I don't know exactly what you have learned, but the answers to your question is,We ( Marie and I) did have flood on the Home both for the dwelling and the contents with some additional riders ( such as seperate ) buts in our case non existing buildings ,Alsoiteruption of use and a seperate "Flood Companion" policy which covers expenses if we are denined the use of our dwelling after a flood,for a period of up to 6 months. we also had Flood on the dwelling at the Old home in which our son resided but nothing on the contents.We also had "Home owners on both of these seperate from the Flood.He had neither. Our Mother in law had none .

On the shop we had hartford with all its additions as many of you have come to know itfrom CAPAX. However it isn't Flood,and because of that( the peril of the loss) I am attemping to negoiate what they will cover. This is despite all the assurances of "CARE ,CUSTODY and CONTROL" of the property of others in my posession,especially in light of the fact that they would even cover damage to art resulting from my neglegence .I have yet to speak to their adjustor who is to spell out what they will accept as their reponsibilty and my LIABILITY .So I am hesitant to say anything as yet . However I did not have a seperate Flood polocy on the shop,since I felt they did cover the propety of others in my posesseion and I didn't own the building.
BUDDY
 
Buddy,
I heard an interview with the Insurance Commissioner for the state of LA. Alot of the insurance companies have been denying claims for people due to them not having flood insurance. Though it appears that the wind caused alot of damage prior to the levy breaks, insurance companies are claiming the damage came from the "flood" of water.

It sounds as though you and Marie will be able to rebuild/replace. But what do I know? As you and I have discussed, one can't believe everything they hear on TV/CNN. I have the Hartford policy that you have through CAPAX for my shop. Trying to read the 20 or so pages of what the insurance company will or will not cover is a task w/in itself.

Goodluck to you and your family. Hope you get EVERYTHING you need to put your life back together.
 
Janet;I fully realize you are trying to be helpful and probably aren't too familar with "FLOOD"coverage and it's Adjustors.

But recently I was told by one of my brother -in-laws who is an insurance broker that their ACTUALLY could be a case where the FLOOD insurer and the Home Owners could quible over the height of the water line in the house ,so as to say everything under the line is covered by FLOOD abd damage resulting above the line might be the resposibility of the Home owners Insurance.

Just how the Heck they can determine that no damage occured before the water rose or that the resulting Humidity of long standing water didn't cause absorbtion and mould is ludicros,or should that be Pathetic.But they do do things like that.Just as Hartfor saying they will cover anything damge or lost while left in your care,custody and control:or even the LIABILITY resulting from damage you may cause due to faulty work.However the coverage may not be covering LIABILITY /LOSS since the "PERIL" was FLOOD which is not a covered rider.To my reasoning they agreed to cover any and all work left in my "CARE,CUSTODY and CONTROL andeven agreed to cover liabilty resulting from Neglagence and even had me list some of the equipment I didn't own and wanted covered Like a CMC.
BUDDY
 
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