StrangerThan
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quote:
ORIGINAL: tazzygirl
And if insurance companies refuse to pay as they did after Katrina?
Taz, about the only assistance I've taken from the federal government was the GI bill, a veteran's home loan when I was 30, and maybe 5 weeks of unemployment between leaving the military and starting school. As far as the insurance companies go, they set up what was essentially a triage area here after the tornadoes. We have two years to file claims. I had a car damaged by hail. I drove it over. They assessed it. I had the check in hand 3 days later.
A few years ago when a trio of hurricanes came up through the panhandle/LA border area and came across the mountains, I had something like 37 inches of rain in a 3-4 week period, virtually all of it in few separate days. This was Jeanne, Ike, and Charlie I think, though don't hold me to a fire on the names. Ike dumped something like 12 inches in 12 hours maybe. It was horrendous. Charlie, I can't remember, but the worst was Jeanne. She just sorta stalled for a few days and rain poured from the heavens.
In mountains, you can associate that with flooding of Biblical proportions. I lived on the edge of the Pisgah National Forest then, actually in the shadow of Mount Pisgah - if anyone knows where that is. I had two roads in, one across the Blue Ridge Parkway which was closed. The other across a tiny bridge built in something like 1910. When I say tiny, I mean tiny. You could squeeze two cars across it at the same time if you went slow. Most folks just waited if someone was crossing until the bridge was clear. The thing sat maybe 4 feet above the creek that ran underneath. After about 2 inches of rain, the thing was covered.
The rain was so heavy that part of the hillside next to me slid off into a pasture directly in front of the house. I thought we were having an earthquake. My house escaped most of the flooding. I had some but nothing like many folks around there did. Escape was impossible. Even if the bridge had been passable, I had a 100 yard wide white water river behind the house where no river had previously existed, and another in front with the eddies and waves lapping at the foundation.
The National Guard air dropped supplies for a week. I saw them going over and heard from some of the people further up the valley they were getting them, but I never made the trip. I spent the time without power, without water, doing cleanup and taking care of my dogs. Now I say, without power and water, but I did have emergency supplies that mostly came from the fact that I spent a lot of time in the mountains camping then. So I had ways to cook, a box I'd built for my boat wherein I could set the boat battery that had several DC plugs on the outside. From the boat, I took the vhs radio, a weather radio, and some lights. The vhs radio was useless. Honestly, I can't say that as I never really tried to use it. I mostly hooked up the lighting to plug I could run in one of the dc receptacles, and used the radio for both weather and outside news.
The boat also had a water tank I'd installed for longer trips - sailboat. I used to sail it up the coast either from Charleston or put in somewhere on the Pamilico Sound and sail it over to the outlying islands off NC that you can't get to by ferry or bridge. It held 6 gallons I think. I had another 5 gallon jug I'd filled once the flooding started. If I'd needed to, I could have hiked up into the national forest as there were plenty of springs, creeks and the like that were not affected by run off. I didn't need to though. A neighbor had a generator he used to power his well and run a few things in his house. Several of us ended up carting gas up to run the thing when we needed water.
Once the water subsided, a lot of folks tried to get assistance. A great many of them were turned down or left to languish. A local radio station started a drive for different things - like tree removal. So many trees were down the place looked like a bomb had gone off. One of the other drives it started however was for house raising. Some people donated money. Some donated time and ability. A good many of us worked in our local neighborhoods to clear roads, trees, do clean up, provide food, and work on the houses that needed work.
When it came to government, the state had what they called a rainy day fund. Nice, almost ironic name there wasn't it? None of it came to the flood ravaged section of the state. At least, none that I heard of. What I heard were local radio and TV stations raising hell about it. Maybe some eventually did. I don't know. FEMA came in, but FEMA money was incredibly slow and came in dribbles. Flood damage isn't covered by most insurance policies unless you pay extra for it. The people that hadn't, and whose house had been damaged or outright destroyed were left to the mercy of neighbors. I'm sure FEMA can dig up some shiny statistics, but honestly, I didn't know anyone who benefited from state or federal programs in that sense. Mostly what I saw were neighborhoods banding together and doing a good bit of the work themselves.
I'd imagine a good many of them would still be waiting if they waited on the government. Having said that, I'm quite sure the state would be all over getting federal money.
Edited to add, this is a shitty topic and a shitty post in a time when people may be dying or losing everything they own. I have a daughter not far from the coast of NC who stayed because her husband works the shelters during emergencies. That's where they're planning on spending their weekend.
I guess it's like one vaunted liberal noted not long ago though isn't it? Never let a disaster go to waste.
< Message edited by StrangerThan -- 8/27/2011 3:09:36 AM >
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