Houseless After Sandy, Until the Insurance Money Kicks In

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It took one day for Superstorm Sandy to destroy my house. So far, it’s taken more than a month for insurance to help me get back in. The last time I slept in my own home was October 27, two days before Superstorm Sandy slammed into my Rockaway Beach, N.Y., neighborhood and poured four feet of water into my living room, dining room and kitchen.

We’re among the 330,000 people in New York waiting on insurance settlements. Like many others, we’re staying with family. Lucky for us, we have flood insurance.

Not so lucky: While we filed our claim the night after the storm hit, we had to wait until December 1 for our adjuster to do the inspection. So when New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo chastises insurance companies for being too slow to process claims, I can say this is one smackdown I can fully support.

Right now my floor is a concrete slab. I have no kitchen. Half the drywall is gone. After 20 days in the dark, we finally got power back. And last week the new furnace was hooked up.

While we filed our claim the night after the storm hit, we had to wait until Dec. 1 for our adjuster to do the inspection.

My contractor is ready to start hanging drywall, the step necessary for us to move back home. But until the adjuster shows up, he can’t. And until that insurance check comes, we have to continue to drain bank accounts and, soon, start leveraging ourselves.

So far we’ve shelled out close to $20,000 – from our own savings, help from family and some Federal Emergency Management Authority (FEMA) housing assistance money.

If the cash runs out before the insurance check arrives, we’ll likely look to 0 percent interest credit cards to get the cash we need to green-light our contractor. It’s a risk worth taking when all you want for Christmas is to have your children sleeping in their own beds.

We have a $250,000 flood insurance policy. We have homeowner’s insurance, too. But as soon as you utter the word “water,” you hear “we don’t cover that”.

Everything regarding our reconstruction is hanging on getting a fair flood insurance settlement. And quickly. I have a fantasy where the adjuster comes with a check in hand. I start to weep and initiate a group hug. I realize how delusional that thought is, but it is indicative of how desperately I need the insurance part of this to be sorted out.

I wish I could say my story is unique. Most people I know in Rockaway are still not living in their homes and instead are in rented apartments, borrowed basements and, for a time, FEMA-paid hotel rooms. Those who have returned are doing so with the help of space heaters as they wait for their back-ordered furnaces to arrive, or the overworked plumbers to show up.

Of those with flood insurance, many have received advance payments and are starting to rebuild. Those without flood insurance are in the worst state, in my opinion. They have to wait on FEMA to approve payment for repairs; wait on New York City’s oxymoronically named “Rapid Repair” program to send a contractor out to shore-up supporting walls or fix electrical boxes; or like us, simply wait for adjusters to do their measuring so that we can green-light the drywall and insulation that will ensure the house is warm enough to live in (even if it does mean living there during construction).

We’re a tired bunch. We miss home. I long for the days when I can make a mess and not worry I’m being inconsiderate to my host. I can’t wait to turn this double mattress in for my pillow-top king. And I can’t wait for a long, hot bath in my own tub, the one I used to complain about and always hated scrubbing.

Oh, to have walls – and an insurance check in hand.