Re: Hurricane Andrew
Posted by
louromig on 8/23/2012, 3:55 pm
Hi Bobbi and all on the board:
Keeping a close eye on Isaac and prepping here in Miami for both a local storm and a potential medical team deployment afterward. Thanks to one and all for your guidance! My sister Laurie in St Pete is also following closely and will be involved at least peripherally with any complications with the RNC.
I wasn't on Miami Beach for Andrew but was mid-county just west of Coral Gables. After riding the storm out at the hospital I returned home the morning after Andrew to find a long vertical crack about 2 inches deep and an inch wide in the concrete block on the NE corner of the house that wasn't there 18 hours before. There was no sign of impact and the corner was somewhat shielded by being close to the adjacent home, which showed no damage. There were no other obvious cracks and I lost some roof tiles but had no visible damage otherwise. The insurance company pooh-poohed the importance of the crack and gave me money to have it patched. Had I known then what they claimed later, I could have done some repairs that might have saved me lots of grief later.
Five years later I sold the house as-is at a $100K loss due to significant damage secondary to settling. The insurance company refused to pay anything because it was a pre-existing condition (vulnerable soil conditions) and told me the "Andrew crack" was due to settling as well (during a hurricane, without much rain?!). I brought in a supposedly independent engineer who told me to my face that the initial damage was a direct result of Andrew but then claimed it was all due to settling in the final report... The insurance company gave me 6 weeks to do a $50K fix so I sold the house instead and took the hit.
I nicknamed that house "The Titanic". The general contractor who bought the house fixed it up for much cheaper than I could have (allegedly taking advantage of "alternative" labor and processes) and moved in himself.
That house was about 10 years old at the time. I trust my current 50+ year old home much more!
Best of luck to all this season!
Dr. Lou |
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