Hurricane maybe?

[s0me0nesmind1]

We're smack in the Hurricane Hermine path. Tonight's forecast from NOAA reads "East wind 30 to 35 mph becoming east northeast 45 to 55 mph. Winds could gust as high as 75 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New rainfall amounts in excess of 4 inches possible.

For me, I think the major worry is that one of the live oaks topples into the house. They are huge. And close. I am not in a flood zone and don't have flood insurance, so am crossing my fingers that some really crazy thing doesn't happen.

Flood insurance shouldn't really play a part, right?

Anything hurricane related is typically covered by your homeowners insurance. That, and I don't think you can call it "flooding" when it took your roof off to get water in the house to begin with.I wouldn't be too worried about flooding overall, unless the hurricane makes a circle around your town, that's usually not the issue unless you're just in an area that easily floods.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Wait a minute. Hermine? I thought it was Hurricane Maybe, like the thread title says. Iz confuzed.

Maybe it's Hermine, Maybe it's not. This hurricane is a lot of Maybes.

 

[Charmonium]

I'm more worried about trees. I have some 60-70 foot oaks and I think a maple that aren't 60-70 feet from my home. I've had them trimmed so that most of the weight of the branches is on the far side but you never know.

And every time you try to fix one problem you create another one. On the maple, we cut off a big branch facing the house several years ago. Everything was fine and dandy until a knot hole developed and was discovered by carpenter ants. Were it not for the fact that this year I did the front year myself, I never would have known about this. I think I got it before much damage was done. But still. You try to be pro-active homeowner and end up shooting yourself in the foot.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

I'm more worried about trees. I have some 60-70 foot oaks and I think a maple that aren't 60-70 feet from my home. I've had them trimmed so that most of the weight of the branches is on the far side but you never know.

And every time you try to fix one problem you create another one. On the maple, we cut off a big branch facing the house several years ago. Everything was fine and dandy until a knot hole developed and was discovered by carpenter ants. Were it not for the fact that this year I did the front year myself, I never would have known about this. I think I got it before much damage was done. But still. You try to be pro-active homeowner and end up shooting yourself in the foot.

Yeah, I have a couple of big oaks and elms near enough to the house to be a concern. One really should get taken down, but I never get around to it. Unless the storm does something crazy that probably won't be an issue, we're looking to dodge the worst of it. All the forecasts are holding firm at just a couple of days of light rain and winds of 25-35.

 

[TheGardener]

We are forecasted to receive 0.25 inches of rain on Monday. Disappointed.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Flood insurance shouldn't really play a part, right?

You have to read your policy very carefully. Most only cover wind damage leaving the flooding to a separate flood clause or policy. If you don't have either of those you will be denied coverage which happened enmasse during Katrina. This scenario plays out every storm season when stunned home owners learn that they don't have the proper coverage and are denied their claims. The SBA will lend you a low interest loan through FEMA if your area has been declared a federal disaster area.

 

[Paratus]

Flood insurance shouldn't really play a part, right?

Anything hurricane related is typically covered by your homeowners insurance. That, and I don't think you can call it "flooding" when it took your roof off to get water in the house to begin with.I wouldn't be too worried about flooding overall, unless the hurricane makes a circle around your town, that's usually not the issue unless you're just in an area that easily floods.

Flood insurance covers rising water and is a federal program.
Homeowners may cover windstorm, (wind and wind blown water damage).

In Texas if you are in a coastal county like Galveston, homeowners almost never covers windstorm. Instead Texas Windstorm Insurance Agency covers the damage if you bought a policy.

If storm surge gets your house it's flood. If wind tears your roof up and rain gets in its windstorm. If you get both then flood and windstorm insurance will blame the other so they don't have to pay.

I'd check and make sure you have both if you own your home and live in Houston or anywhere along the gulf coast.

 

[Brainonska511]

You have to read your policy very carefully. Most only cover wind damage leaving the flooding to a separate flood clause or policy. If you don't have either of those you will be denied coverage which happened enmasse during Katrina. This scenario plays out every storm season when stunned home owners learn that they don't have the proper coverage and are denied their claims. The SBA will lend you a low interest loan through FEMA if your area has been declared a federal disaster area.

I read through my renter's policy once upon a time and flooding was specifically excluded. The only water damage that was covered was damage caused by other damage first (eg: window breaks and rain comes in or leak in the roof, etc...)

 

[Puffnstuff]

That's why insurance companies have so many different riders on their policies allowing the purchaser to pick and choose the level of coverage that's right for them. Each time I've bought or built a home I checked to make sure that I was not in a flood zone and that my property would be at a higher than nominal elevation mitigating the need for flood insurance. If I lived along a known flood zone, wasn't the highest property or were near or downstream from a source of water (lake, river or stream) I would purchase a flood policy for my property.

The sad thing is that they aren't that expensive relative to the coverage they provide and they're definitely better than going into debt to make repairs. I lived in Pensacola, FL when hurricane Ivan pummeled the area back in '04. My home and external structures took a beating from the wind and the damage from short lived tornadoes spawned by the system. My water damage was a result of wind damage breaching the roof and was covered by my home owners policy. I had a rider for external structures so my privacy fence was covered (an almost 8k bill) and the total for a single storm approached 30k. When I reroofed my home I got the contractor to use heavier grade materials to mitigate any future damage and paid more for 50 year wind rated architectural shingles. I don't advocate gambling with your home which is probably the single most valuable asset that most people will ever have so protecting it properly is paramount.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

The poor weathermen. I've been tuning into the coverage every couple of hours as I'm close enough to the possible impact area to be concerned. With the storm moving further east than expected and staying further south than expected most of the Tri-State area will be spared the worst of things (hopefully). The news and weather stations have reporters stationed on beaches from Delaware to Cape Cod ready to catalog the carnage and they're reduced to reports like

"Beach erosion is still possible"
and
"Gee, rip tides will be a little stronger than usual"

It's like watching sportscasters trying to inject excitement into a baseball game that's 25-1 in the 9th inning.

 

[allisolm]

Be grateful that they have to force the excitement rather than actually living it. In the Tallahassee area we still have 30,000 with no power on day 4.

And for s0me0nesmind1 who said flood insurance shouldn't really play a part, try having 5-10 " of rain (what was forecast for us) dumped in 24hrs and the retention pond in the next subdivision upstream proves to be inadequate and overflows and that water comes through your back yard and into your house. Even though you're not in a flood zone, you just got flooded and with no flood insurance, you lose.That actually happened to 15 houses in our subdivision several years ago.