Official Hurricane Sandy Recovery Thread v. Uggghhh

[jingle.boy]

 

[cramx3]

Thank god my brother has power. Also, its impossible to get gas now.

[Chino]

Thank god my brother has power. Also, its impossible to get gas now.

Last year a neighbor (old, rich, and a very nice guy) up the road from me bought 100 gallons of gas pre-storm. The gas stations were closed for 4+ days in my town this time last year. He gave up to five free gallons to everyone on my street that agreed to help him with yard work once spring came around. He wouldn't accept cash for the fuel. It was his way of saying don't wait until the last minute next time.

[cramx3]

Well that's really nice of him, but I'm no rich guy and can store all that gas, but I'm glad I filled up my tank before the storm.

[Tick]

I live on the coast of Connecticut in Milford. I just got my power back. Lost it Monday at 6:00pm. My city has been quite devastated. My neighbor had a big tree land on his house. The shoreline is ravaged. Other than no power, I had no damage so I would be foolish to complain about it. It was down to 59 degrees in my house so I am so thankful to have heat this morning. I am very fortunate for sure. People right next to me are still without power. I have offered them hot showers or what ever else I can provide.
I have to say that being home as this storm unfolded was the scariest weather event I have experienced. My daughter is 12 and she was crying as the tree hit the neighbors house. You feel quite helpless when there is nothing you can do but sit tight and hope for the best. Having power back is great, but seeing the images today I have missed on TV is gut wrenching.

[jingle.boy]

Wow.  Glad things are ok with you Tic

[zerogravityfat]

I spent 2 hours for the gas line at bloomfield avenue, with nearly no gas left. for those who don't know, it's not the nicest part of the world.

[axeman90210]

I spent 2 hours for the gas line at bloomfield avenue, with nearly no gas left. for those who don't know, it's not the nicest part of the world.

Hey now, you were probably only about a mile or two from my house

[Tick]

Wow.  Glad things are ok with you Tic

[bout to crash]

On a humorous note, the filming of Noah's Ark had to be postponed due to flooding:

https://www.imdb.com/news/ni39617518/

 

[Cecilia]

We lost power Monday at 6pm. We are still without power. Phone wasn't working at home. My parents didn't lose power and are fine. My block is okay, about 20 down trees. i have heard our town is bad. The power company is "assessing", but I have heard 2-4 weeks.

[jingle.boy]

Wow... that's not cool.  Hopefully it's quicker than that.

[Tick]

We lost power Monday at 6pm. We are still without power. Phone wasn't working at home. My parents didn't lose power and are fine. My block is okay, about 20 down trees. i have heard our town is bad. The power company is "assessing", but I have heard 2-4 weeks.

Sorry, C.

[DebraKadabra]

Other than no power, I had no damage so I would be foolish to complain about it. It was down to 59 degrees in my house so I am so thankful to have heat this morning. I am very fortunate for sure. People right next to me are still without power. I have offered them hot showers or what ever else I can provide.

Dude.  You rock.

Glad that you and Steph (Cecilia) are okay.

[cramx3]

So here's my story:

I left my apartment Friday afternoon to go to my sisters rehearsal dinner and stayed at the hotel. Saturday was the wedding and stayed at the hotel again. Then I got back home really hungover Sunday afternoon and got a call to go to a hotel and camp out near work in case they needed support on their data center. Slept in the hotel Sunday night then again on Monday night where the hotel lost power at 830pm and back at my apartment my fiance said the power went out at 4pm. After I was allowed to leave my post at work Tuesday evening I went straight to my brothers apartment cause they had power. My fiance met me there where we slept Tuesday and Wednesday. My fiance went to check on our apartment and we still have no power and she packed the cats to bring to my brothers. Meanwhile I'm stuck because my cars check engine light came on blinking and won't run. No one has gas and most still without power. I'll be staying at my brothers again so that's one full week without sleeping in my bed.

[millahh]

I actually feel guilty for having had it so easy.  To try to repay karma, I'll be giving blood this weekend (first day I can, after having a cold), and have signed up on the volunteer list on the NYC city site (haven't heard anything yet).  I offered to put up various friends from Long Island, but they all only lost power for a short time.

It's very heartening to see 3+ hour lines at blood donation places.

Also, I'd like to know which hotels and banks in midtown were turning away people from lower Manhattan that needed to charge their phones, so that they can be appropriately blacklisted...

[Tick]

Other than no power, I had no damage so I would be foolish to complain about it. It was down to 59 degrees in my house so I am so thankful to have heat this morning. I am very fortunate for sure. People right next to me are still without power. I have offered them hot showers or what ever else I can provide.

Dude.  You rock.

Glad that you and Steph (Cecilia) are okay.

[millahh]

Glad to hear you're doing ok, Tick.   

Getting reports in from colleagues...one who lives in the Rockaways lost both cars and had 4 ft of water in her living room.  Ugh.

[axeman90210]

The line for the Manhattan-Brooklyn shuttle at some point today. Evidently this was block two of a six block line.

[Scrub206]

Well going on day 4 with no power. They say still possibly another 10 days but they're working on it qq. We just got a generator from someone who for power back already. Shits pretty brutal. People are nuts over gas at the stations. There was already a fist fight at the gas station in town. I'm just hanging out not doing much other than praying for power to come back xD. I didn't read the thread but I hope all of you have been safe and hanging in there / doing well..

[Nick]

I was only without power at home for 2 days, so pretty lucky as far as that is concerned. However the amount of places that are having power/other issues have made my job this week really difficult, but getting through everything okay.

[KevShmev]

Serious question:

If you lose your home and/or car to a disaster like this, how does that work as far as insurance and everything goes?  Like, what if you had paid off half of your mortgage on a house that is no longer there because of a storm like this?  How does that work?

[Neon]

I'm so incredibly lucky... I live in Camden County, NJ-which for point of reference I'm about 20 minutes from Philly and 45 minutes from Atlantic City.  45 minutes east of me was completely decimated...2 hours north of me was decimated, and I never even lost power.  It flickered 2 or 3 times but came back on immediately. 

[Nick]

At the end of the day you're always on the hook for any purchase you've made. When you buy a house or car you enter into an agreement to pay the full amount no matter what. If you're lucky insurance will provide all the assistance needed or FEMA or something else will help with things, but you will still be ultimately responsible. I'm sure bankruptcy is pretty common in these situations.

[DebraKadabra]

Well... I would assume FEMA assistance would help to pick up any slack that regular insurance doesn't cover.  If you don't have flood insurance on your house, it's going to be difficult to get anything additional from your insurance company if you just have regular homeowner's insurance.
 
But the thing about the FEMA assistance is that there may not be enough to go around for all who were affected.  There was miles of red tape for people affected by Katrina, Rita and Ike to get ANYTHING within a decent amount of time and even though Obama is trying to cut all of that red tape for victims of Sandy, if there's not enough to go around there's just not enough to go around.

[Tick]

The line for the Manhattan-Brooklyn shuttle at some point today. Evidently this was block two of a six block line.

Get those people out of the way, we have a marathon to run!

[snapple]

Serious question:

If you lose your home and/or car to a disaster like this, how does that work as far as insurance and everything goes?  Like, what if you had paid off half of your mortgage on a house that is no longer there because of a storm like this?  How does that work?

It really depends if you had the right coverages. A good insurance agent/company wouldn't screw you over. Essentially, the mortgage company is an insured interest, so they're still going to want to get paid for the home. However, assuming you had enough coverage, the general rule is that the insurance company will restore your house to like kind and quality. IE. if your house was built out of soda cans, they would rebuild it with soda cans.

edit: I should say that this may be MICHIGAN law, but I think it's pretty much the same across the US. Make sure to call your insurance company.

[jingle.boy]

A good insurance agent/company wouldn't screw you over.

Never had to deal with an insurance claim, huh?

Don't most policies guard against natural disasters/acts of God?  I know mine does.

[antigoon]

I think he works in insurance.

[snapple]

A good insurance agent/company wouldn't screw you over.

Never had to deal with an insurance claim, huh?

Don't most policies guard against natural disasters/acts of God?  I know mine does.

I'm licensed, by law, in the State of Michigan to quote, bind and take premium for auto, fire, life and health insurance. I also handle MANY claims. I work for a great company. We never try to be the cheapest, we try to be the best. All of the people looking for the "cheapest insurance possible" end up excluding coverages they SHOULD have. It's really THEIR fault. Yes, that's not the case all the time. But you wouldn't believe how many people just want the cheapest insurance they can get. Flood insurance is incredibly tricky. I do NOT know New York's law for flood insurance. I know there is Federally mandated flood insurance that you CAN purchase if flood insurance is not offered in your area normally. There are catches, either premium or number of days you can have the policy before you can claim a loss, but it varies.

It's amazing to me how many people try to save a couple bucks a month and end up excluding coverages. If you need to make a claim (statistics show most people make claims - not all are catastrophic), you generally haven't paid enough in to really get the money for the claim. Example: I carry 100/300/100 (all in thousands) coverage on my automobile. Michigan law has liability coverage minimums at 20/40/10 (thousands). The cost difference is literally $2-4 a month. But, if I get in an at fault accident and put someone into the hospital and their bill is $98,000, I'm covered. If I had 20/40/10, they could sue my ass for the $78,000 that I wasn't covered for. Sure, they may never get that much, but their insurance company would have no problem garnishing my wages to cover the bill.

Also, if the insurance agent did not accurately go over coverages with the insured, and they didn't realize they weren't covered, they can sue the agent for that. Usually agents have errors and omissions insurance to cover for this. But, if it's a legitmate "my agent didn't explain this and now I'm fucked", you can still get your money to cover your claim.

[jingle.boy]

Sorry dude... didn't mean to be insulting if I came across that way.  Canadian market is a little different... I don't think that many people deal with a broker.  I don't - at least not for my P&C insurance.  And in my experience, the insurance companies do not make it easy to get access to the money one is entitled to.

[snapple]

Sorry dude... didn't mean to be insulting if I came across that way.  Canadian market is a little different... I don't think that many people deal with a broker.  I don't - at least not for my P&C insurance.  And in my experience, the insurance companies do not make it easy to get access to the money one is entitled to.

if I came off as defensive, I didn't mean it that way.  I'm pretty sure Canada is pretty similar to American insurance laws. It may not be easy, but if you have the proper coverages, you will get the money eventually. The issue I have is that a lot of people assume that by nature of having insurance, everything is covered. It's not. You need to make sure what is covered and if you have something that isn't, you need to see if it can and how it can be. It's not the easiest stuff to understand for everyone - I get that. But it's really annoying when you have people trying to make claims and they're not covered, they ask me why and I tell them that it's something we went over and they didn't want the coverage. Then they claim they didn't and I tell them that I have notes of the conversation and the paperwork they signed to start the policy states that they don't have that coverage. Also, I go over each policy with a new customer while they're in the office or on the phone with me. I also tell them if they're not sure about a coverage to give me a call and I can give them answers. Sure, they may forget about what I had said the SECOND they walk out of the office. But, I did go over it with them. It's on THEM now.

another edit: Yes, there many shitty insurance salesmen/women. It really is worth everyone's time to find someone who isn't shitty. If an agent goes over all your coverages with you instead of just saying "yeah, everything is covered", then you know they actually are decent people.

[jingle.boy]

if I came off as defensive, I didn't mean it that way.

I didn't think you did.  :itsallgood:

[zerogravityfat]

looks like we are looking at around 200 dead in staten island, but nobody seems to give a shit about that part of nyc. we have a noreaster coming in on wednesday that's going to dump alot of rain and wind, should make the tree fall much worse.

[cramx3]

Wow 200? I haven't heard that yet but it does seem Staten island is getting ignored. PSEG reported yesterday our power was estimated to be restored by Monday and now the estimation is Friday. I'm fortunate to have my brothers to stay at but I can't stay here all week and with my car issues and the need to go to work next week its not looking so good.