Hurricane Harvey Relief Efforts

[Fulltimer]

This article seems to describe some problems in the aftermath of Harvey.

https://www.texastribune.org/2018/02...ent=4787191996

What are you folks in the area experiencing?


don

[mgrist]

I see they are building that house right back about 10 feet from the water. I'm guessing that we are paying to have it rebuilt as we will next year and the year after?

[Fulltimer]

Yes, that is prime real estate.

From the article:

More than 890,000 families sought federal disaster aid in the three months after Harvey hit — including more than 40,000 who needed short-term housing help. Yet more than 100 days after Harvey’s landfall, the General Land Office had provided short-term housing to fewer than 900 families.

And by the time the GLO contacted more than 33,000 families for the short-term housing help they sought, those Texans had made other arrangements. Many officials fear an untold number of people are living in moldy, unrepaired homes.

I was wondering what the folks in the area and those affected are seeing.

[Wannabe]

A lot of people around here are back in their homes, a lot are not. A few may never git back in their original home for varied reasons. It's been a sad process. This is halfway between Houston and Beaumont.

[mgrist]

Many officials fear an untold number of people are living in moldy, unrepaired homes.

Where are all the people that were hollering after Louisiana got hit? To many white people in the mix this time around? Yea, I think I will leave it.

[07HEMI4ME]

We need to be prepared to take care of ourselves, family and neighbors and not rely on the Govt.

[Mike]

During and after the flood we lived in our 5th wheel RV for about 4 months. That was a godsend compared to what neighbors had to do. Some even lived in a tent in their yard for a while.

We moved back in the house toward the end of December even though construction was sill underway. Most of that is done now. I have neighbors that simply walked away and others that have already sold their homes. My nearest neighbor seems to be moving very slowly, trying to do everything himself. I would have done that if it was just me, but I have a family to care for.

The biggest pain was dealing with FEMA who is our flood insurance carrier. They were overwhelmed and it took several weeks to get an adjuster out to view the damage. They didn't do anything except to confirm we had damage and we had to wait over another month before they came back to determine the dollar value of our claim. After that, it took forever to get a settlement check which is now tied up with our mortgage company.

I couldn't wait for the insurance money before starting the repairs. I've paid for everything myself and I'm still waiting for the mortgage company to pass along my insurance money.

We got nearly 2' of water in the downstairs, 3' in the garage. I removed the drywall and insulation 4' up with some help from my brother. Most flooring is tile, but I removed carpet from the two rooms that had it. Also removed several cabinets and shelves that got wet on bottom. Appliances and furniture went out to the street with the rest of the debris.

After basically gutting the downstairs from the floor to 4'up, we had to move everything that didn't get wet upstairs. Most of that is still upstairs while we finish the downstairs.

I hired a drywall contractor to replace the insulation and drywall. Hired a cabinet maker to replace the cabinets and a painter to repaint the entire downstairs, even the ceilings since I'm planning to sell.

Then I ordered and replaced all of the appliances and most of the furniture.

That's a little oversimplified, there was always something unexpected that had to be done.

Now, I'm doing little things like replacing all of the electrical outlets that got wet and replacing outlet and switch covers that came off for the painters. Touch up of the paint and drywall dings is almost done.

All in all, I guess it hasn't been too bad, but this is not the way I wanted to spend my retirement!

Compared to a lot of others, we've been fortunate. There are a lot of folks still living in tents and shelters. Thankfully, we didn't have to do that.

Damn, that's a long post! Please don't confuse me with TxMusky!

[TxMusky]

Gee thanks Mike. Glad you got it all going your way. Your mortgage company wouldn't happen to be Nationstar would it? They bought our mortgage years ago and when we had the last massive hailstorm come through it got us good. Had the insurance adjuster come out and give us a quote for the House, the barns and the carports. Wrote us a check on the spot and I had a friend that used to work for me years ago in the roofing business and he was there before the adjuster left. He said he would put me a new roof on and the tin roofs on the barns and carports might take little longer because he would have to shop around for steel prices. We agreed to spray foam on the metal barn and carport roofs and they could start the following week.

I replaced all of the fascia going around the house with hardy board concrete and he had a roofing crew out to do the tear off and replace 4 weeks after the storm that damaged it. I had signed the insurance check and sent it to the mortgage company and told them the repairs would be finished in 3 weeks and would let them know when the inspector could come do his thing. 6 months after all of the repairs were complete and 4 months after the inspector accepted all repairs, I was still fighting to get the insurance check from NationStar. I fought with them on the phone many times and finally reported them to the BBB. That got me paid, I paid the roofer and we immediately refinanced and changed mortgage companies, got a lower rate and will pay it off much sooner.

[Dave Grubb]

Sorry anyone had to go through that. Not to minimize your damages, but imagine what those who can't manage their own recovery are going through.

You mentioned moving, do you have any idea how your flood history will impact you?

My wife wanted to buy a house on a stream which had previously been flooded. To structure an offer I reduced the asking price by the estimated cost to raise the house 13 feet. You can guess how that went. The next year saw a record flood on that stream. Subsequently I went to see how the house faired, I had to find it first, it had moved down stream and was snuggled up to a grove of mature oaks!