My house is basically DEAD TO ME! Thanks hurricane ida

I’m so sorry

I'm sorry to hear this. I hope you and your family are all safe and sound, after all.

Sorry OP. Hope things get better real soon.

I lived through South Florida hurricanes in 2014/2015. Was without power for over 3 weeks and without water for several days. My fence was destroyed and once power was restored, my A/C wasn’t working.

It’s not fun to live through this. Ugh

alas MOST areas where people live are low-lying. I'm sorry, OP

So sorry OP. Please take care as best you can. Good luck with everything.

[quote]Please by my advice, NEVER move to a low-lying area.

I live in the basin in London.

I thought I'd move up to the hills but even there we had floods recently on Portobello Road - most people don't realise it's build over the old river Porto.

But enough about me. Sorry to hear your news OP. Will you be able to move away? Do you own or rent your house?

Prayers up OP 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

Good luck, OP!!

Stay strong, OP! The post title shows your sense of humor is still in-tact, despite what you're going through. Once you rest and recoup some energy, consider using this as an opportunity to move, if you can, factoring in that this may/will happen again, based on your current geography. If moving isn't an option, fortify what you have, to the best of your abilities. Here's a link that might help. Big hug to you, champ!

Can we have your stuff, OP?

My stepdad's whole family lives in Golden Meadow and surrounding towns-- damage everywhere. Hope you're okay OP. It's a sad situation.

OP, what a drag. Sorry for the damage to your property. Do you have insurance to cover the loss? Here in Seattle, we may not be low lying, but there is a lingering problem or two. We just have earthquakes and a city council that prays to Allah twenty one times a day and is on the point of seizing any property owned by white people and giving it to the homeless.

In Flyover north we have blizzards, but this is the drawback of living in the sunbelt: heatwaves, hurricanes, drought, fires...

All together now . . .

Let this be a lesson to move AWAY from the coast before you die. You didn't even get a direct hit and it's that bad. I'm waiting for Houston to be wiped off the face of the earth, yet still people ignore all the signs. Or Miami, both of those will be far worse than New Orleans ever will be.

OP here. Thank you for all the wonderful responses. I cannot sleep in this house. I drank three glasses of shitty Liberty Creek Merlot snuck from the liquor cabinet. My head is spinning, my mind is everywhere. It is 4 AM and I am feeling unbelievably existential. I feel so horrible for the ones worse affected— I saw Katrina in 05 as a 8 year old boy. That my friends, was Armageddon to me at that age. This is emotionally so much worse, as my dad is fighting cancer right now and we’re already messed up from that. My mother told my dad that she is about to completely lose her mind. This is a beyond messed up time — I am moving so far away from here. I am listening to some slow core right now and trying feel better after the wine headache. Thank you DL, this little website has been riding me through the pandemic, and now this hurricane. Bless you all.

Here is a photo of a house a few doors down with me. A young family was IN HERE during the storm, they’re safe but the house is basically totaled..It could be much worse for me, I should be grateful.

Mother Nature is a real Mutha! Be well, stay strong and always remember to watch out for the gators.

I trully am sorry, its hard to imagine how you feel. We had an earthquake, well two stronger in fact, last year in Zagreb, and it was the most terrifying experience, you feel like a ragdoll.

Will insurance pay out?

I'm sorry for you, OP, and your family. Ask for help from the Red Cross and Catholic Charities. FEMA is useless unless something has changed under Biden.

I did remote support for Katrina animal rescue in tandem with a neighbor who went down to the 9th Ward. It hard getting over seeing people and animals suffer.

I also feel bad about the flooding of Portobello Road, one of my favorite places in London.

^^^ typo: it's hard...

R20 - We find out Friday, with the flood insurance adjuster. If he doesn’t think he wants to pay us, with my cancer patient dad on the line, we’re screwed.. but we spoke with him on the phone and he is extremely nice and respectful. Please wish for the best

I hope everything turns allright, it must.

Re: portobello — I’m so sorry about that. Sounds like a cool place in London.

R21 — FEMA has definitely been worthless this far. We need different accommodations than my grandmothers house, her boyfriend is a toxic piece of white trash. But that’s a whole other story.

R21 — I will coordinate contacting those with my mother in the morning. They’re going to Operation Blessing to get ice and MREs. Can’t eat the food here, I would get food poisoning. My grandmother has terrible habits with keeping food out way longer than usual.

R24 — thank you, there has to be bright days ahead. My parents have both told me they’d probably rather be dead than deal with this again. Morale is the lowest I’ve ever seen them. Even more that what I saw in Katrina

I know, Its so horrible for older people like your parents. Hard to start anew. Isnt goverment providing some temporary situation?

OP - keep emphasizing that it's not flooding that caused the damage. Instead, it's the wind that caused destruction with the water coming after.

I hope everything works out for you OP/r16. Just hang in there while your dad gets treatment and once he's stable, start looking to move inland. Nobody here likes flyover country but so far we're more stable (as far as weather goes) in the Midwest than on the coasts. My elderly and rich aunt and uncle went from Ohio to Florida when they retired and regretted it, they went through multiple floods and hurricanes their last years until they passed. My aunt said she would have preferred the nasty Ohio winters to that.

OP, if you need rescue help of any kind or getting someplace through the flood water, post a request to Cajun Navy Relief's Facebook page.

They are a great bunch of Cajun guys with flat boats. They have an incredible support organization and volunteers. They make rescues 24/7, unlike the US Air Force that shuts down at sundown.

Put their contact info in your phones.

R27 — My parents are in their early sixties. They just paid off our house after thirty years, and our home was completely recovered from Issac 2012 last year in my eyes. We finally felt complete again. Now the cycle repeats, now for the final time for me.

DL news junkies, please keep an eye out for temporary housing assistance news from FEMA — so we can check into a hotel or condo without it taking even from the financial side of things.

OP, I hope everything works out for your family.

OP,

Here is the FEMA website...

R30 — the Cajun Navy is incredible. Thankfully the waters are now mostly receded in my area. The Mennonites are in town fixing power lines and coordinating efforts, great people. I appreciate the suggestions!

R34, thank you.

Op, FEMA phone number:

You may call FEMA toll-free at 1-800-621-FEMA (1-800-621-3362) to apply for assistance or check your application status.

FEMA wants you to notify your insurance company first before you submit your application for emergency housing, house repairs, etc.

You can download the application for temporary housing (hotel) to your smart phone.

I believe the Red Cross can give you money for a hotel. Red Cross Emergency Phone: (877) 272-7337

Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans www(dot)ccano(dot)org (866) 891- 2210

Spirit of Hope Disaster (504) 861-6351

You don't have to be Catholic. They will help you and give you money.

R37 — we are Catholic actually and I will definitely consider these options. We filed with FEMA right after we filed a claim with our flood insurance.We need our personal space as soon as possible. Bless you

OP here. Going to rest for a little while. I will check back after I wake up. Thanks again.

R38 Bless you and your family! Catholic Charities helped a friend and her 2 kids when my friend left her abusive husband. My friend is agnostic. CC just paid a co-pay for a family member who had a medical emergency (and we aren't Catholic).

They pay for things like eyeglasses and pretty much whatever you need. Call them.

Are you alright?

OP, I hope that you and your family are OK. Pray to Archangel St. Michael, God's favorite angel. St. Michael is powerful. He's a warrior and a healer, so he'll help your family find a place to live and help your dad with his cancer.

If FEMA gives you a trailer, make sure that you have the lock re-keyed. You take out the tumbler that sits inside of the lock and have a hardware shop or locksmith re-key the tumbler. After Hurricane Katrina, all of the FEMA trailers had the same lock !!!

RIP house. She was a good girl.

They still have Winn Dixie?

OP, take this one day at a time and go easy on yourself. I’m sending you support, and typing from my powerless, damaged house in New Orleans. I’ve seen some awful things and some truly wonderful things this week. You’re not alone.

So you're homeless and in a Winn-Dixie parking lot, and have lost everything: and yet you're taking the time to post on DL??

And using a jokey DL meme as your headline???

“This too shall pass…”

Good luck to you. 👍

R38 it sounds like you did all the right things: had flood insurance, called flood insurance, applied for FEMA (as long as your address is in the "Individual Assistance" category, you should be eligible for some aid. How long that aid will take, I don't know. But as someone who works in lending and has been having to deal with all the new natural disasters, you've done all the right things. I'm sorry that this is happening to you and I hope it all works out.

For myself, after having experienced several natural disasters within the past 4 years, it's time for me to GTFO of here and move, which is what I'm doing early next year. I wish you well and glad that you had a place to land. I'm sorry you're going through all of this.

OP, go get your cute little ass fucked by someone. Don't be picky. Just present.

Sex can help with anxiety.

I’m so sorry, OP. Please let us know if you set up a way online to get help. I’ll send you something.

Please move out of the South, OP. Yeah. The entire United States is either burning down, flooding or being destroyed by strong winds or earthquakes, if not COVID, however, we’re not India… just yet.

Try to get to higher ground and move to a place that’s bustling with jobs.

FEMA will temporarily relocate you and your family. Especially considering your dad’s condition. I’m sending you positive thoughts and lots of love, OP.

We’re here for you!

Am pulling for you, OP! Sorry you are going through this. Glad you lived to tell the tale, though. Take care!

Southern infrastructure spending. You live under conservatives for two hundred years, you fend for yourself.

R46 Are you a sociopath or what?

R53 It's a fair comment. It is fucking absurd the idea of posting on here when you've lost everything. Your whole family gets bludgeoned and killed by a bunch of black thugs? Yeah. Go post it on motherfucking DL, bitches.

R53, the answer to your question is YASS! R46 is indeed, a sociopath!

If you live in Louisiana you are by default a sociopath, ask me how I know.

OP pay no never mind to any negative posts here. The non-crazy DL folks are all wishing you and your family the best. Keep us updated.

R57 Well said, I agree, never mind the idiots, they are punished enough by being such law life scum. I think that all the people with some human emotions feel for OP.

What’s the storm risk in Kentucky? I know Tennessee had catastrophic flooding a couple of weeks ago. How about Georgia? It seems like there is no place in the US safe from killer storms. NY and NJ had more deaths from Hurricane Ida than Louisiana, including multiple tornadoes.

OP, do you have any money to check into a Hampton Inn or a place like that by yourself or with your parents even for a night for a change of scenery? Lounge by the pool, watch movies with the A/C blasting?

I really would like to give the typical snarky Datalounge reply of "I am sorry Miss, but I have problems of my own". However, I don't. I can not begin to fathom all that you face before you. I truly hope that you receive the help you and your family needs, especially your Dad. Good luck with everything.

R58 Most postings are fake, ESTs, or troll postings, and you feel for them all. You're a fucking moron.

R61 Fuck off, you mentally ill piece of shit. Go see a shrink, you need meds. You have delusions of grandeur thinking YOU'RE the only one who KNOWS that ANYBODY who comes here to tell a story is making it up. You're a fucking lowlife.

Just because you don't have any kind of a life to speak of doesn't mean the rest of us don't have experiences and/or problems we can share here. Get off the internet. There's still time for you to be something other than a bitter, miserable, sad, nasty queen.

Can I have your stu... never mind. Seriously dude, I hope things start to get better.

here you go

OP here — left the toxic, white trash grandmothers house this morning. Found out her ‘boyfriend’ sells his prescriptions on the side, provides them to his trashy family. My parents and family are the polar opposite to this — if my grandfather was still alive he’d probably divorce her over this shit. I was living in hell. Mother and I cannot find people to gut houses in Slidell, so we have taken it upon ourselves to do it. It’s a boat ton of work, more than anything I’ve ever done before, but I’m losing a lot of weight and feeling good still.

Thank you all for the wonderful messages and love throughout my horrid time. This has been 100x harder than Katrina — I was 8 years old then. We’re probably going to the Pacific Northwest after this is said and done. My musician work is prevalent there, I have friends there too. Good ones. I will be definitely trying to remember the prayer of St. Michael the archangel R42 — and to the other NOLA DLer with no power, please stay strong. Don’t mind coming here to the Northshore for gas and ice, eventually Entergy will restore service. Keep the faith. Also I totally agree R42 — this too shall pass.

Also forgot — we are going to try staying in the flooded house until FEMA offers assistance. They’re waiting for a denial letter from the flood insurance.

All of the best to you.

Good luck, OP.

OP here. Just wanted to vent about one more thing: flood insurance here is so expensive, you could probably afford living just about anywhere that in the US, that isn’t California or the big northeastern cities. When the house was built in 1988, the yearly rate was $350. In 2021? $1400. And bound to go up as flood zones change.

Sadly, R69, as long as people continue to live in flood zones, and homes contain more electronics and expensive floors and furnishings, flood insurance will continue to increase. I know the answer isn’t as simple as telling people to move, but an insurance company would be foolish to keep rates the same when the number of named hurricanes continues to rise.

Good Luck, OP.

In CA, you have to buy fire, earthquake, flood, and theft insurance. I grew up in CA. When I had apts of my own after college, I had to buy fire insurance through the California Fair Plan.

OP, I misread your post. You said any place that isn't CA...

Is the insurance company denying your family's claim?!

R72 — I surely hope not. Our flood insurance adjuster was a pretty nice guy (good looking too! ) and already has sent us an advance for demolition (which we ended up doing ourselves). They send us a letter that denies us loss of use or any kind of additional living expense coverage, as where I live doesn’t have that coverage.

I'm so sorry, OP. I live in central FL and know a little about hurricanes...but in the last few years, the panhandle is getting the worst of them. In the hope that it offers some comfort, here's the prayer to St Michael the archangel:

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil; may God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen.

I hope everything will go well with the insurance. I keep my fingers crossed it does. All the best to you and your family from Croatia.