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My aunt and uncle, in their 80s, decided not to evacuate their home in Fort Myers. They sent a brief text to my cousins saying that they lost power and the roof tore from the house, but they were okay. Nobody had been able to communicate with them since, but my cousins are flying to Florida. I can’t believe they stayed inside their house for that storm.
Your cousins flying to Florida is probably not a great idea.
I'm sure your aunt and uncle are ok, they probably got taken out of their home after the storm. It is crazy down there, in addition, a lot of people have lost power so their cell phones are not charged. Your cousins need to give it some time, your aunt and uncle will get a hold of them.
There was an Ian check in Facebook page, where if someone from Florida checks in, it will put a banner on their profile picture to say they checked in and are safe. Of course I'm looking for it now and am not seeing it. I am seeing a Facebook group called check in from hurricane Ian to let everyone know you safe and made it. I'm seeing others too.
Yesterday I was seeing the profile pic icon, there were also posts that went along with it where people were posting, looking for loved ones, there were others on the ground reading the posts, sending people to find the ones mentioned. One gal was looking for her mother who had a flooded house, the fridge was knocked over from the water, some how she and her boy friend had gotten out, then couldn't be found because they were taken to a shelter with dead cell phones. In the end the daughter did find her mother thanks to one of the people on the ground who saw her post.
I'm sure your aunt and uncle will call their kids once things settle down, they get their cell phone charged. Your cousins should just sit tight and wait.
I have a bit of a different assessment of the situation. First, I'm not so sure that the insurance companies will be in any big financial trouble after this Hurricane Ian situation. The insurance laws in Florida have tightened up considerably in the past 10-12 years and the insurance companies are required to have much better re-insurance. In other words, the insurance companies buy catastrophic insurance that covers them in case of unusually high number of claims.
Second, I'm not so sure that many of these homes that were on or very near the water's edge were insured. Most of the pictures I saw of the destruction appeared to be in trailer parks. Buying insurance on a mobile home that is sitting a block or two from the ocean would be cost prohibitive if you could even buy it at all.
Third, even in the unlikely event that they could buy homeowner's insurance on their place that is on or near the ocean, flooding is not covered, and flooding (storm surge) is what wiped out most of these homes.
In short, I believe that the overwhelming majority of property owners who sustained severe property damage or total loss in Hurricane Ian are just SOL. In fact, that is the only logical way of doing it that makes any sense. Few people are going to want to invest big bucks in a place that is so vulnerable and at the same time is so cost prohibitive to purchase insurance on. Consequently, they purchase relatively inexpensive mobile homes and put them on the property and take their chances. If they're lucky, they stay there for many years and never have any serious damage. If they're unlucky, they lose an inexpensive mobile home. That's the chance they take.
I would have a bit of a different view. The Florida property insurance situation has been a mess for a long time and Ian is only going to complicate things further. Six companies have become insolvent already this year and the rest of the year is not looking great for the survivors. The cost of reinsurance has been rising a lot lately and Florida insurance companies have been losing money.
There will be a lot of claims for wind damage and some of the small insurers have a lot of exposure in the five counties affected by Ian.
A lot of people from my NJ high school have moved down there, I believe they all chose not to evacuate which is stupid. I guess as "Northerners" they're under a rock if they don't know the kind of damage this storm could do.
My hubs gram lived down there, they got hit by Andrew, I could never understand why anyone would live there with the amount of storms that come up during hurricane season.
My hub wants to move down there. No thanks. I don't do storms like that, I also don't do reptiles. Or the heat which is a big one, especially with my hub who forces the temp on the AC to be much too warm for me. He can go live there by himself during the winter like he did a few years ago.
My sister went back to Houston with her husband and in the matter of a year or so they were rebuilding two houses from Hurricane Harvey. Hell to the no and no thanks.
I have had a few decades to adjust after divorce; I do not recommend it. But, I was not going to move whenever and wherever he continually decided he needed to move (which the second and third wives had to endure)... That's why my sister is still married and I'm not because she was continually uprooted her whole adult life... No thanks!
I'll stay in NJ where we have 4 seasons plus my kids and grand kids are here.
You go girl. My husband once drug me down to Houston. I lasted nine months. #1 Bugs, Roaches and More Bugs; Bugs numerous in variety and numbers; and, very large bugs. #2 Tornado Warnings -- nothing you can do you have been warned (give me earthquakes any day)... #3 Humidity #4 Rain every afternoon; every day same time same channel; rain. Tied for #1 Reptiles (which I never ran into during my nine months of Houston life)... Tied for #2 Tornadoes is #2b Hurricanes (which I never ran into during my nine months of Houston life)...
After that nine months I never left the West Coast ever again. Husband ran around on me and we divorced and he ended up... ....wait for it... back East, but, most recently Naples FL (RIP ex husband).
Many of the hardest hit areas didn't have time to prepare and evacuate, because they were not expected to get hit. It took a hard right from the expected trajectory. Even the Sheriff in one of the towns said they didn't have time. Fort Meyers and other towns there had never had a storm affect them like this, so there's that, too.
Certainly it wasn't enough notice for nursing homes. Also it's not so easy for everyone to evacuate, especially in Florida with lots of elderly. Several of the rescues I saw mentioned were elderly. One a man with Parkinson's. A 97 year old woman who fell out of bed during the storm and broke her hip, too.
I saw the shelters they had, set up in high schools. There were no beds, people were laying on the floor on blankets and sitting on lawn chairs they brought themselves. Very few elderly could stay in a place like that. They can't sleep on the floor, many couldn't get on and off a cot even due to how low they are. Many can't walk 200 feet to a bathroom. It didn't look to me like anything was set up for elderly.
I did hear most of the beachfront homes were considered uninsurable and didn't have homeowners, I don't know about flood but the newscaster said they weren't insured.
My county has special needs shelters set up for elderly with caregivers or other special medical needs. They had reclining chairs higher off the ground than normal with pillows. They looked fairly comfortable. And, people can take their pets.
The general shelters you have to bring your own bedding.
I think that's true for most counties. Most of the shelters are in schools so probably just through the weekend as they need the schools back for the kids. Anyone who needs shelter after that, social services agents will find them more permanent shelter.
Your cousins flying to Florida is probably not a great idea.
I'm sure your aunt and uncle will call their kids once things settle down, they get their cell phone charged. Your cousins should just sit tight and wait.
Charging isn’t the problem, it’s no signal with cell towers down. In our area, Verizon had no service and ATT was and still is spotty. Portable cell towers are being brought in. Our son can charge his phone, but can’t receive texts. Without power he has no internet. We use Wi-Fi calling since our house is block and signal is barely a one bar inside.
It’s improving, our neighbor got back some Wi-Fi just as she was getting ready to come over and use our Wi-Fi. They were running out of gas for their generator and were trying to siphon gas from their car unsuccessfully. Another neighbors kids came with an electric pump to siphon. They told him to use his boats gas which holds 40 gallons, something he hadn’t thought of.
Our local FB page is understandably full of frantic people trying to reach family/friends they can’t get in touch with, but more are asking about their homes and the condition of their neighborhoods. Many people are being advised to stay away because of no electricity in many areas, but they aren’t listening.
Overnight I 75 was closed in both directions for several exits because of flooding from the Myakka River. Surge was low here but we received 18-20 inches of rain from Ian.
Friends of mine snowbird in FL. They almost never go to the beach. Okay, whatever.
I asked another friend of mine who wants to move to FL if she has the stomach for it whenever a hurricane comes and she flippantly answered, ”well, there are hurricanes and tornadoes in this area, so what?” (Mid-atlantic). Yes, but not a direct hit from Cat 5 hurricanes and tornadoes are RARE here. I really don't see how she can equate FL with the Mid-atlantic. Two different areas altogether. If you want to move there, fine, but just acknowledge the risks without getting flippant about it.
The friend who snowbirds in FL--her neighbors live in a first floor unit in Fort Myers and refused to evacuate. They lucked out as the storm surge apparently didn't affect their development. I seriously wonder what they would have done in a 14 ft storm surge. It's not really fair to jeopardize other people to rescue you when you clearly should have evacuated.
My county has special needs shelters set up for elderly with caregivers or other special medical needs. They had reclining chairs higher off the ground than normal with pillows. They looked fairly comfortable. And, people can take their pets.
The general shelters you have to bring your own bedding.
I think that's true for most counties. Most of the shelters are in schools so probably just through the weekend as they need the schools back for the kids. Anyone who needs shelter after that, social services agents will find them more permanent shelter.
I would have a bit of a different view. The Florida property insurance situation has been a mess for a long time and Ian is only going to complicate things further. Six companies have become insolvent already this year and the rest of the year is not looking great for the survivors. The cost of reinsurance has been rising a lot lately and Florida insurance companies have been losing money.
There will be a lot of claims for wind damage and some of the small insurers have a lot of exposure in the five counties affected by Ian.
Putting in a claim is one thing. Actually COLLECTING on that claim is a different matter. When a homeowner has a place that was hit by both high winds and high water, they're going to have to prove that it was the high wind that did the damage and not the high water. That's a tough thing to prove.
Even if the wind blows your roof off, if the storm surge put 6 feet of water in your house, then you're unlikely to collect any insurance money because homeowners insurance (even if you have it) does not cover flood damage. How are you going to prove that all the damage to the walls, floors, electrical, furniture, appliances, etc was due to rain and not due to the 6 feet of water in your house? That's the conundrum that all homeowners face in areas that are subject to flooding or storm surge... even if they have insurance which is often not available or cost prohibitive.
How are you going to prove that all the damage to the walls, floors, electrical, furniture, appliances, etc was due to rain and not due to the 6 feet of water in your house?
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I recall after Harvey,my neighbors do not have flood insurance ,but they were throwing a lot of their household furniture out ,some were just slightly touched by water,they must have expected insurance to pay for them,whoever picked up those furniture could easily resell them .
Some even throw away bottles of 12 in a pack of drinking water ,still sealed and wrapped in plastic film
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