Flood victims will spend more than they get back

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Q. I watched the water come in and then drain out, and have gone through caseworkers, construction managers, insurance adjusters … never thought I’d have to be such an advocate for myself and my family. I believed the first caseworker who said we’d just have to get an architect or engineer and they would know what to do, and that we’d get the money to lift our house and get our lives back together. Two years later, the floors and walls are still stripped, the mold may be coming back, and we’re living in a condo with a mortgage and a rent payment. We’ve spent our children’s future, our savings, and have nothing to show for it. I read about other people going through the same things, and now I hear that some who gave up because they weren’t getting phone calls returned and see no end in sight have to give back money they spent on just living. What are we all going to do?

A. I’ve been in hundreds of homes, advised thousands of people, and learned that there are so many different scenarios and choices regarding levels of damage, repair allowances, time frames and funds availability. The complications, the lack of proper training and the lack of assistance by paid government recruits who could have filled in forms with the appraised “estimated cost of repairs” and “allowable activities” information instead of pushing it off on your design professional wasted valuable time, then avoided reviews and didn’t return calls.

Let’s face it: The funds, as of Nov. 1, have been completed for only 200 or so simpler repairs of the more than 20,000 applicants who have not yet walked away in disgust. You will get through this problem, but not the way you were promised. I attended courses recently offered for the first time. Limited to professionals, a recent class had only four architects. How are four architects, with the latest information, going to adequately serve nearly 20,000 households in a “timely manner”?

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