...which will help all to understand what is going on just now with insurance and other matters on the Peninsula. Thank you for all your encouragement during these days. Ted and I are safe in Branson and are having fun just resting, enjoying the lovely condo, taking in the sights and listening to the music from time to time. The leaves are changing every day and it is fun to watch the transformation take place right before our eyes. We walked about a mile this morning, up and down the hills in our complex, (wow - we're out of shape, I fear), and then we swam laps in the big indoor pool at the clubhouse. We've met some nice retired couples traveling here for the fall color tours.
It is difficult to understand how the different insurance adjustors are coming to the results they are reaching. Some pay for all damage and loss, some are paying for porches, decks, steps and outbuildings. Others are not. Some flood has paid, but most has not. Windstorm seems to be the best option, but even their rulings are different for each homeowner and policy.
Hurricane Gustav is totally different than Ike. We hardly had any damage from Gustav — just some rain and some wind. Ike was totally different. It took everything we had — house and possessions alike. A few people have had the two storms mixed up in their thinking.
Our Windstorm adjustor went out on Saturday and we are awaiting his report to us. Homeowners pays nothing they say. FEMA has already declared the house completely gone, which was not news to us at all.
Ted and I had come to love our little beach house and intended to live out our years there on the Bolivar Peninsula. We are now waiting on water and power to be restored to the area and workers are there doing the best they can do under the circumstances. Looters are also there as well, we are being told. The 12 and 13th of the month will be one full month since Ike's visit of destruction.
The national news media does not touch what is really going on in our area, especially in the loss of lives. The New York Times did run one good story this last week on the missing people. There are continued discoveries of human remains and last week, the Houston Chronicle released a story about the cadaver dogs being brought in to help identify "hot spots" where more than one or two bodies are still located under debris. The Examiner's lead story this week, written by James Shannon, was about the loss of life and the missing.
I have been working with several families concerning the missing and it is so sad. Every time a "new" body is found or discovered, the family members get their hopes up and the phone calls and emails start all over again. Most simply want closure, as anyone can understand, to this long and difficult waiting period. I have not talked to one family member who resented their loved ones love of the beach and desire to live there. Ted and I now know that three people are presumed dead from our little street in Port Bolivar. The grandmother, mother and son, all in one family, lived together and tried to leave, but have not been heard from since the storm. The grandmother was a retired UTMB nurse and loved the beach.
The first anger I felt is when a FEMA representative told me personally that the agency would not be "handing out the $2,000 cash advances like they did with New Orleans/Katrina victims because they made so many mistakes with them." Duh! I did not make any of those mistakes — the federal government did. I was getting information for a story I was doing and asked him several more questions as well. However, I must be quick to say our FEMA inspector has been wonderful and is a nice guy. He is a retired builder from Arizona and really seems to care about the applicants he is assigned.
We will build back once we know what we have at stake and once we get permission to return to Bolivar. Worker are busy all over the Peninsula getting the power and water working again.
Take care and please do remember the families of the missing and those who are struggling to rebuild. Many were full time residents of the Peninsula and had no other home to go to after the storm. It will be years before the Bolivar Peninsula and Galveston Island is back up and running as it once was.
Until the next page turns,
Brenda
Thanks, too, for telling folks about the blog. People are reading it from around the world and I've made so many new friends.
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