Louisiana Voice is seeking your help so that we may, in some small way, try to help you.
Like my veterinarian Michael Whitlock and others of whom I am aware, there are many other victims of the August floods who have been victimized again by FEMA and insurance companies.
Whitlock’s home, his vet clinic, two vehicles and most of his equipment were lost in the flood. Some of the equipment he managed to save was subsequently stolen by looters. Despite all this, he was stiffed by his flood insurance company which refused to pay the full policy limits despite six feet of water in his home, leaving him to fend for himself. FEMA was worse than useless; he got nothing.
Yet, because his home and clinic each were more than 50 percent losses each (yet, less than total losses by his flood insurance carrier), he has been ordered by the City of Denham Springs to elevate each structure. “The cost of elevating the clinic would cost more than the entire structure is worth,” he said.
Another Denham Springs business had $500,000 flood insurance coverage but received only about half that in settlement despite not being able to re-open for four months.
LouisianaVoice had a post a couple of years back about the 3-D strategy of insurance companies: “Delay, Deny, Defend.” The strategy works this way:
Delay paying claims as long as possible;
Deny in the hope the claimant will give up out of sheer frustration and go away;
Defend vigorously if the claimant sues. Even if the insurance company loses the individual lawsuit, it’s worth it when you consider the number of claimants who cannot afford the money and time necessary to pursue what is rightfully theirs.
If, for instance, after a catastrophe like Katrina or the August flood, a thousand homeowners file claims and each is denied by the carrier and only one of that 1,000 sues and wins and 999 simply throw up their hands and walk away, who do you think is the winner in the long term?
In the case of Katrina, for instance, the two companies who wrote the book on the 3-D tactic, who were the absolute worst companies with whom to deal, were Allstate and State Farm.
And as for FEMA, who could ever forget the debacle of Katrina? Does anyone not remember President George W. Bush telling FEMA Director Michael Brown “YOU’RE DOING A HECKUVA JOB”?
And just so you know, the FEMA response to the flood hasn’t been much better. With an whole new round of FEMA trailers (950 square feet) costing anywhere from $126,000 to $170,000, depending on where the trailer is set up, you have to wonder why FEMA doesn’t just build small but reasonably price permanent housing for victims?
This is not to suggest that everyone is entitled to free stuff, but it makes no more sense to spend that kind of money on flimsy trailers.
With this in mind, LouisianaVoice would like to have your experiences with both FEMA and insurance companies for a future story.
And while you have more important matters that demand your attention (like getting back into your home or business), if you have encountered difficulties getting either FEMA or your insurance company to respond or if you’ve been ordered to elevate your home or business at unaffordable costs to you, we’d love to hear from you.
Send us a narrative of your experience to:
Don’t worry about grammar, punctuation or spelling. We do all needed editing.
Louisiana Voice 
you have to wonder why FEMA doesn’t just build small but reasonably price permanent housing for victims?
Go back and search for “katrina cottages”. That was a disaster in and of itself.
I guess I should have said give the hurricane victims the money and let them build. Of course, there are a multitude of problems with that theory but by letting FEMA have anything to do with the construction would be every bit the disaster the FEMA trailers were. To see what Fredster alludes to, go to these links: http://www.americanpress.com/State-outlines-problems-with-Katrina-cottages
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/02/katrina_cottages_more_expensiv.html
http://www.originalgreen.org/blog/what-was-gained-in-the.html
I think it would have been the same in either situation Tom. If I recall correctly there were supposed to be some “lessons learned” from the K experience and one of the lessons was that the governing authority for FEMA, whatever part of USC blah blah, needed to be updated. It doesn’t sound like any type of legislation to correct and fix it ever happened.
We were among the North Louisiana flood victims in March. I have to say our FEMA adjuster was prompt and equitable.
Maybe, due to more than one past flooding experience, I knew the drill and made contacting FEMA a first priority after I evacuated 40 miniature horses that were belly deep in water in a few hours. Thanks to wonderful friends with trailers we were able to get them all out with the last ones being loaded in the dark.
In a week the water was down enough to begin salvage efforts. Did the insurance or FEMA cover every thing? Heck no. It didn’t cover the sewage treatment system because “only what was inside the exterior walls” was covered. The fact that the toilets were not operational was beside the point.
I am sorry for you folks in South Louisiana. Weird as it may sound, the precautions I have taken after each flood experience helped me this time. I had a flooding plan to put into effect which you were not fortunate enough to have because you had never flooded and never expected to.
I would rather go thru Chemo again than to have to deal with all of this another 3 or more months. I had a trailer in prairieville no I’m not trailer trash it’s what I could afford on a mid range state salary. FEMA told me to fix it State Farm. Agent fussed at me for not getting the walls torn out as soon as he wanted even though I had a letter from oncologist saying I could not live there anymore and I am 64 yrs old. Got the walls out with the family’s help fired the insurance agent and transferred to anew one. If you have an ICC rider on your flood policy and your home is declared unlivable you are eligible for up to 30,000 to raise, demolish or move to higher ground. Did my State Farm agent tell me this or give me any info that would help or tell me what to do next hell no he didn’t. I had ICC rider and ascension parish engineers declared mobile home unlivable. I learned what I have by going to FEMA pretty much every week for the last 4 months. I have to buy new now that will be nice if I can ever get there. Survey says I have to raise from 4 ft to 8 ft hire an engineering firm to do the raising, move the old trailer out hire plumber and electrician oh and before I can even start it will take up to 90 days to process the ICC claim and I know all of this because I am persistent but if you are not you get no help from anybody you pay an insurance premium to. After 4 months of being homeless I am looking for anything affordable to rent or buy but there is nothing in the BR area I want my nice quite boring life back.