Well I just woke up. It's 4 am and pitch black and too hot to go back to sleep so I'll answer these the best I can. This might be kinda long. Opportunity for me to vent a little.
Will you rebuild?
Yes. If we can. I have no idea how this will work in terms of what parts of the house is salvageable and what's not. I know it has to be stripped down to the frame. I also know the entire roof must come off, even what's not damaged because there is no way it's to code. The freaking plywood is stapled to the trusses, not to mention many of the trusses are actually broken and a couple missing completely.
Who will do the work?
I have no idea. Contractors are going be overwhelmed with work and I imagine most will be concentrating on bigger money jobs like apartments, condos and businesses.
How will you design it to be stronger?
For starters I want the plywood screwed down instead of stapled. Also I want a redesign of the roof to get rid of the gable type. I've noticed in my area most of the houses with a hip roof (I think it's called) did pretty well.
I also want storm shutters. Something relatively easily put up before a storm.
Will your insurance pay?
Do to my own stupidity we are very much underinsured. I bought this house about 5 years ago and put good insurance on it. About 6 months after buying it the insurance company told me I had to replace the roof or they would cancel. I wasn't able financially to replace the roof for about a year and they cancelled me before I got it done. In the meantime the mortgage company put insurance on the house and wrapped the cost into my payments. Unfortunately when they do that they only insure the structure of the home, no contents. Also although the policy says it's for 205k in the fine print it says the pay the least of either the 205k limit or the payoff on the mortgage. If they just pay off my mortgage I'm screwed because I'll have a paid for house that I can't live in and no money to fix it. Ironically the cost of the insurance is about the same as the good insurance I had before. I should have bought my own after getting the new roof but there was just lots going on in my life the last few years and it wasn't thought about. It's just been one major hit after another the last 3 years.
We are the family stuck in the middle. We get zero help from FEMA but also don't have a good insurance policy that is going to put as back to pre storm condition. Basically if you have no insurance you are ok because fema will take care of you. If you have good insurance you are ok. If you have crap insurance you are screwed.
Is now the time to move inland?
I'm not right on the coast, probably 2-3 miles from the beach. To my understanding this was the strongest hurricane to hit the Florida panhandle in recorded history so I feel ok. Even 20-30 miles inland is pretty devastated in the direct hit areas and I don't want to move farther than that from town.
Kids? If so how are they taking it?
9 year old girl, 15, 19, and 21 year old boys. All currently live at home with us. The kids are taking it much better then the wife and I. 2 days after the hurricane I was able to get the 9 and 15 year old to my sister's house about 15 miles away. She didn't have power at the time but had a generator and she got power back the day before yesterday but I haven't seen those 2 since they went with my sister because we haven't been able to communicate. No one with Verizon has been able to communicate. ATT works and I managed to grab a pre paid today been trying for several days so that's why I'm able to get online a little.
Schools out? How long?
All schools out right now. My understanding is some of the schools will have to be completely rebuilt from the ground up and some can be repaired. I think they are talking about bringing in portable buildings. My kids are homeschooled so they'll get back at it as soon as we can somewhat settled. My daughter does competitive gymnastics but both gyms are destroyed. That is a huge part of her life and one of the worst parts of this whole thing. My son plays football and is on the Civil Air Patrol based out of the Air Force Base but the base to my understanding is completely wiped out so I don't know when or if those things will come back.
Did you leave when the storm got close?
We were in the house the whole time. All pretty light-hearted until the roof started peeling away on both sides of the house. The 4 of us and our 3 dogs ended up in a small guest bathroom in the center of the house with me and my oldest holding the door with all we had to keep it from blowing open. Even through that my kids were brave as hell telling jokes and trying to keep the mood light. It wasn't until my wife started apologizing and basically saying her goodbyes that my daughter got upset but then as soon as my wife got her composure back my daughter did as well and put SpongeBob on her tablet and relaxed again.
Did your house need new paint or is that wind damage? I'm not sure. It was painted right before we bought it 5 or so years ago. My wife's been on me to paint it because she hates the color but I've never noticed paint missing or anything.
Do you do water damage?
No, took the class and got certified after I started the business in 08 but never got into it other than some small jobs for my customers. I think this is pretty much all tear outs. I do need to figure out how to get some money coming though. Not going to be much carpet cleaning for a while. I see a lot of people (restoration, tree service, roofers, etc) coming over and getting rich. I'm grateful they are coming but at the same time a little frustrated that I'm local and can't really get any work.
Does your wife work?
No, she is still a licensed trauma RN but left the job about 8 months ago. Not sure if she could get an RN job right now Both local hospitals are heavily damaged and closed. I'm hearing they are going to try to have one back open in 6-8 weeks but the other one is going to be 6-8 months.
Did you grow up in PC?
No, been here since 95, I'm from Central Florida
Have you always felt that The Big One was coming?
No, being a Florida native I've been through my share of hurricanes. Even with that. Had I known it was going to strengthen as much as it did I would have evacuated. I thought it was going to be a category 3 at most. By the time I found it was strengthening to a strong cat 4, almost cat 5 it was too late to leave.
Any injuries or casualties near by? My neighbor directly across the street passed away. She was 94 and lived alone. We checked on her after the hurricane and she was good (She lost the roof on her garage and had some water in her kitchen, the rest of the house was ok). The next morning my other neighbor went and checked on her and it looked like she passed away in her sleep. I'm told she had been having some heart trouble. The whole time the storm was going on we actually thought she evacuated. We saw a minivan with luggage in it the day before the hurricane arrived and though she left in it but apparently she refused to leave, said she was "going down with the ship".
If you could pick where to move and start over, where would you go?
I can't imagine ever leaving Florida.
