OT: Been too busy cleaning up

Bob Greaves wrote on 7/4/2006, 10:11 PM
I was on vacation in Michigan when I got the news that the worst flood in history was due in the Binghamton NY area in less than 6 hours. My house, built 70 years ago and located at least two feet above the MAJOR FLOOD plane, has never had anything beyond water in the basement.

Until last year it had never amounted to more than two feet. But last april 2005 my basement flooded and filled to the top. Now this year my first floor was under 4 feet of water.

Everything is destroyed - the walls, the floors, the studio. Absolutely unbelievable - we are stunned.

Comments

johnmeyer wrote on 7/4/2006, 10:42 PM
That's bad news. I lived in Rochester, NY twenty-five years ago, and many of the people that grew up there told me many stories about going down to your area to clean up after the Hurricane Agnes floods in 1972. A lot of people died in those floods. I hope that isn't the case this time around. Apparently there were even bigger floods in 1936 and 1865. Here in Carmel, many people were flooded almost to the second story in our El Nino floods ten years ago. Lots of them moved after they cleaned up. Near as I can tell, that's about the only way to avoid being flooded again. If you live near a river, it's going to happen sooner or later.

I hope you've got flood insurance, or at least some sort of insurance that will help you get through this. I just had dinner last night with a good friend who spent three months in Bay St. Louis (Mississippi), which was ground zero for Katrina. He was there for the three months immediately after the Hurricane. Based on his observations, and what I've heard elsewhere, try to figure out how to get your life back together in some way that doesn't rely on waiting for FEMA or the Federal government. I'm not saying you shouldn't try to get their help. I'm only suggesting that you try to find other ways, through insurance or local relief efforts, to get things started immediately. Way too many of the poor souls down there still haven't started rebuilding because they relied almost entirely on the Feds.

JohnnyRoy wrote on 7/4/2006, 11:05 PM
> ...we are stunned.

Sorry to hear about your loss but you have to keep things in perspective. You are alive and unharmed. That is really all that matters.

~jr
Grazie wrote on 7/4/2006, 11:16 PM
Dreadful . . absolutely bloody dreadful!! Take a day at a time . . a really tough time.

If you can come and keep us posted as to your progress . .. sorry . ..

Grazie
TheHappyFriar wrote on 7/5/2006, 5:38 AM
that really really sucks... especially because you're not in a flood area. Did you have flood insurance?
Tom Pauncz wrote on 7/5/2006, 7:32 AM
Really feel for you Bob. Having lived in the Binghamton area (Endicott) for the best part of three years in the early 80s, I cannot imagine anything like that happening there.

My thoughts are with you and best wishes for a speedy return to normal.

Tom
Bob Greaves wrote on 7/8/2006, 7:13 PM
We did not have flood insurance. Flood insurance does not cover damage to the basement and this house has never had water on the first floor even during Huricane Agnes or the previously worst flood in history in 1936.

We have ripped out all the walls from 49 inches above the floor, we are in the process of removing the floors to put down a new sub floor. The walls are filled with mold and the floors are buckled.

We have no idea how much this will cost us by the time we are done.

What a mess. Dressers colpased and other furniture floated and moved around knocking things over. It was a huge mess. We have been working hard 12 hour days cleaning it up.
Jay Gladwell wrote on 7/8/2006, 7:43 PM

Bob, my heart goes out to you and your family. I know exactly what you're going through. We went through Hurricane Andrew in '92. Lost practically everything. You can't see it now, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Like Graham said, take it a day at a time. You will get through this.


Bob Greaves wrote on 7/13/2006, 4:00 AM
Last night we got more bad news. FEMA claims our home requires flood insurance and since we do not have any, we are in non-compliance and therefore do not qualify for FEMA assistance.

Damage to our home and contents after four feet over the first floor is in the neighborhood of $50,000. We were on vacation at the time the flood hit. Our home has only a first floor and basement. The floors are buckled and the walls had to be removed from 49 inches above the floor to dry out the studs, disinfect, spray mold, and remove insulation. We are only three years into a 20 year mortgage. We are destroyed!

We are homeless with a mortgage!

I'm entering this from our church computer. I have no access to my own computer or email. Thank you for your thoughts.
fldave wrote on 7/13/2006, 5:53 AM
Wow, Bob, be strong.

FEMA is trying to get out of everything they can. Here in Florida, on your property survey map, it states what flood zone we are in. If your truely in a flood zone, I'm surprised the mortgage company didn't require flood insurance before lending you the money. Also remember, that at least here in the south, FEMA just updated the flood zone maps this year. If they updated NY maps also, you possibly were not in a flood zone when you took out the mortgage.

Just some things to check on. If you can find copies of your home closing papers, look at those carefully to see what the flood plain status was.

Here is FEMA's Flood Insurance site also to look through.
http://www.fema.gov/business/nfip/

Keep your chin up.
filmy wrote on 7/13/2006, 7:15 AM
it goes a bit beyond FEMA in NY as well. Here, On Tueday night, the Board of Supervisors voted to give out 6 million in county loans to people with flood damage to start the money flowing as FEMA and Insurance are getting things going. However a few hours later the State nixed it because doing it would be "unconstitutional". There is a prt of the state constitution, in the local finaces section, that prohibits municipal loans to be given to private residents. Some of the local powers that be are saying they should just go ahead and start taking applications and giving out checks and see what the state does.

I can't say about Bob but I know the majority of people around here don't think much about flood insurance. This isn't an area where flooding happens all the time, thusly it is not mandated that people get it. And even if a person did have it - well, just look at all the people who don't get payments for it when the *do* have it. My wife pointed out last night that the weather here has gone crazy over the last several years and I agree. At what point will insurance companys redfine the standard "act of god' coverage to *exclude* most things. They aready exclude flooding, even if it is an act of God.

I found this little general description of coverage -

Damage from falling water -- to roofs, windows, floors or furniture -- normally is covered by a homeowners policy.

One could always try to get federal coverage via the The National Flood Insurance Program.

You now when this all happened I started thinking about Huricane Katrina and how much it was covered and here we had this large thread on the whole topic. This flooding happened all over NY State and yet the media coverage has been mostly local and the disccusion here has been limited. It is very true that the media shapes what the nation and the world talks about.
Spot|DSE wrote on 7/13/2006, 7:20 AM
Bob,
Very sorry to hear about your plight. Hopefully someone at FEMA will recognize that you're a victim along with everyone else and help you some how.
Good luck with the recovery.
Bob Greaves wrote on 7/27/2006, 7:52 PM
Our denial has made news on the local TV stations and the local paper. They have done a ton of research for me including verifying our location in zone B and a statement from a FEMA official stating that those who live in Zone B cannot be required to have flood insurance.

However it is still possible that we could still lose as FEMA is claiming that they sent us a notice in 2005 requiring flood insurance. We have no knowledge of the notice but if we had received it we would have had only 60 days to appeal it. Since we were notified and did not appeal it could remain the official status of our situation.

Boy are we tired.