NEED HELP PLEASE - Lived in Pass Christian, Ms. near beach
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NEED HELP PLEASE - Lived in Pass Christian, Ms. near beach
Hello everyone - first chance to get on site after Katrina. Need some help regarding insurance info. I had a home 1/2 block from beach in Pass Christian and also a business building on 122 Market street ( very close to beach) Both were destroyed - just the slab left. I am dealing with my insurance companies and need some help with my commercial insurance. My adjuster is asking if there is a website that could give info that would tell him what the winds were as Katrina approached the MS. coast. He has determined that the damage to my commercial building was caused by tornado's and wind. The storm surge did finish the job - the building was located at one of the highest levels in Pass Christian. 27ft. Surge was 10-15 feet at that location. All business' have been destroyed. If anyone knows of a site that will tell what the winds were at the time of impact I would be very greatful. Thanks to his board, I evacuated. I appreciate all of the boards help - you guys were great. I have some incredible stories about riding out Katrina and will post later. Thanks again to everyone - I know this board helped to save lives. God bless you all.
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Looking for the same information. My parents live in N. Biloxi and lost their home to Katrina. Insurance adjuster said that there was a location on the NOAA website that would give time, winds, & water levels in the area of their home and that this would help with the insurance claims. I have looked but cannot find that info. Any help is greatly appreciated!
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SouthFloridawx
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i don't know if this will help but tryed
http://www.skeetobiteweather.com/discoh ... d=AL122005
http://www.skeetobiteweather.com/discoh ... d=AL122005
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bvigal
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This is ridiculous!!
1st of all, I am so sorry for you loss! But glad you got out of there!!
Secondly, these adjustors are jerks!! How many claims are they doing? And won't ALL of them require wind/surge information? So why are they asking each individual claimant to come up with the data? I'd politely tell him I've lost my home and livelihood, and ask can HE please find get the information from his company. If that didn't work, I'd be in touch with the state insurance commissioner, filing a complaint!!
God bless you!!
1st of all, I am so sorry for you loss! But glad you got out of there!!
Secondly, these adjustors are jerks!! How many claims are they doing? And won't ALL of them require wind/surge information? So why are they asking each individual claimant to come up with the data? I'd politely tell him I've lost my home and livelihood, and ask can HE please find get the information from his company. If that didn't work, I'd be in touch with the state insurance commissioner, filing a complaint!!
God bless you!!
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Sorry for your loss biloxi..Insurance people make me sick sometimes!! My men's church group just got back from long beach mississippi,we helped remove trees in long beach and pass christian.The fire chief gave us a drive along the beach last Fri.All i can say is what destruction...We cried and wondered what a beautiful place it must have been.All our prayers are with all of you..We set up tents at the win-dixie...what a lot of help there was from the churches and salvation army along with police and fire from many states..Good luck to you and GOD bless....
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bvigal
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Thanks, Artist. But, as I've now had time to think about it, I can do better.
Biloxi and Lilwena, I apologize for my rather emotional response. Not that it is wrong, who wouldn't feel the outrage upon hearing that, after all you've been through, you must dig up data for your claim to be processed?
I want to help, if I can. So, I'm working on a document for you. Will post here when I have it done.
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bvigal
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Here are just a few thoughts of mine. There are so many smart people on this board, I’m sure many can do better than this, but here goes!!
One important piece of advice:
As a former insurance agent (but not an adjuster), I’d be absolutely sure what the terms of my policy are before even talking with the adjuster. Is it possible you are covered for hurricane wind damage, but not storm surge? Or non-structural damage only? Or tornado but not hurricane? Or different deductibles, or different schedules of claims payment (% of value) for various hazards? Please remember, his job is to pay as little as possible without violating the policy contract.
Therefore, when you find out which hazard pays the most money for your business and/or home, endeavor to document that particular hazard as the one which really destroyed your property.
Dawgpound wrote: This page might help.
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/res ... trina.html
OK, Dawgpound has given you a very good start with this link. This report was written/updated September 1, which makes it VERY preliminary!! However, the author is an expert, and can presumably back up this data.
Jay Lawrimore
NOAA/National Climatic Data Center
151 Patton Avenue
Asheville, NC 28801-5001
fax: 828-271-4328
email: Jay.Lawrimore@noaa.gov
Let’s look at some chief points for your adjuster:
1. Data collected from hurricanes takes months to analyze. Preliminary reports are frequently updated years after the fact. Therefore, anything released by NOAA this soon is highly in question. To prove this point, go to the NHC archives of storms and read stuff from 1995 or so, which still says “Preliminary Report”. FEMA is more likely to have data for insurance purposes, that is one of their jobs.
2. Meteorological instruments which record winds, rain, surge, etc. are usually damaged or destroyed near eyewall of Category 3 or higher storms. Therefore, just because no measurements are available, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. If your adjuster thinks a tornado hit your home, based upon the size of the debris (shredded), he could be right. Or, he could be looking at 130mph gusts from a hurricane mixed with 35 feet of swirling, angry water, something he’s never seen before.
3. Looking at excerpts from Mr. Lawrimore’s report, where I have added text emphasis:
“FLOODING: Storm surge from Mobile Bay led to inundation of Mobile, Alabama causing imposition of a dusk-to-dawn curfew for the City. Large portions of Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi were underwater as a result of a 20 to 30+ foot storm surge which flooded the cities.”
a. Notice he says 30+ feet. Storm surge is on top of regular tide and does not include wind-driven waves on top of that. Therefore, with Katrina’s winds, it is entirely possible waves were damaging property as high as 40ft above sea level. Don’t forget those waters were full of debris which essentially acted like battering rams, pounding away at everything until it was broken into little pieces. This is similar to what happens to sea shells on surf breaks – simply pulverized, none left intact.
Mr. Lawrimore further writes:
... “Windspeeds over 140 mph were recorded at landfall in southeastern Louisiana” ... “As the hurricane made its second landfall on the Mississippi/Louisiana border, windspeeds were approximately 110 kts (125 mph). Gusts of over 80mph were recorded in Mobile and 90 mph in Biloxi, MS.”
b. Safe to say your dwellings experienced AT LEAST the approximated 110kts, if not more, that’s about 127mph. Gusts would have been around 130kts, that’s 150mph. Biloxi had AT LEAST 90 mph (I imagine that should be knots!), but even if it is correct, it would mean gusts in the neighborhood of 115 mph.
c. While SPC shows no tornado reports for your area on 8/29, that doesn’t mean there weren’t any. But, who would have been outside to see them? Or, how would anyone document them by a debris field, when the entire 4-state area was damaged by a major hurricane? Even dopplar radar, if any stayed on the air, would have a hard time picking up tornados amid hurricane winds.
Finally, a bit of perspective from Mr. Lawrimore:
“The central pressure at landfall was 920 mb, which ranked 3rd lowest on record for US-landfalling storms behind Camille (909 mb) and the Labor Day hurricane that struck the Florida Keys in 1935 (892 mb). Hurricane Andrew in 1992 dropped to fourth, as its central pressure was 922 mb at landfall. Katrina also reached a minimum central pressure of 902 mb at its peak, ranking 4th lowest on record for all Atlantic basin hurricanes.”
d. Point here being, no man-made dwelling could withstand this force of nature without severe damage or total destruction.
NOAA’s area sat photos of damage, covering LA, MS, AL, can be found at
http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/katrina/
One important piece of advice:
As a former insurance agent (but not an adjuster), I’d be absolutely sure what the terms of my policy are before even talking with the adjuster. Is it possible you are covered for hurricane wind damage, but not storm surge? Or non-structural damage only? Or tornado but not hurricane? Or different deductibles, or different schedules of claims payment (% of value) for various hazards? Please remember, his job is to pay as little as possible without violating the policy contract.
Therefore, when you find out which hazard pays the most money for your business and/or home, endeavor to document that particular hazard as the one which really destroyed your property.
Dawgpound wrote: This page might help.
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/res ... trina.html
OK, Dawgpound has given you a very good start with this link. This report was written/updated September 1, which makes it VERY preliminary!! However, the author is an expert, and can presumably back up this data.
Jay Lawrimore
NOAA/National Climatic Data Center
151 Patton Avenue
Asheville, NC 28801-5001
fax: 828-271-4328
email: Jay.Lawrimore@noaa.gov
Let’s look at some chief points for your adjuster:
1. Data collected from hurricanes takes months to analyze. Preliminary reports are frequently updated years after the fact. Therefore, anything released by NOAA this soon is highly in question. To prove this point, go to the NHC archives of storms and read stuff from 1995 or so, which still says “Preliminary Report”. FEMA is more likely to have data for insurance purposes, that is one of their jobs.
2. Meteorological instruments which record winds, rain, surge, etc. are usually damaged or destroyed near eyewall of Category 3 or higher storms. Therefore, just because no measurements are available, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. If your adjuster thinks a tornado hit your home, based upon the size of the debris (shredded), he could be right. Or, he could be looking at 130mph gusts from a hurricane mixed with 35 feet of swirling, angry water, something he’s never seen before.
3. Looking at excerpts from Mr. Lawrimore’s report, where I have added text emphasis:
“FLOODING: Storm surge from Mobile Bay led to inundation of Mobile, Alabama causing imposition of a dusk-to-dawn curfew for the City. Large portions of Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi were underwater as a result of a 20 to 30+ foot storm surge which flooded the cities.”
a. Notice he says 30+ feet. Storm surge is on top of regular tide and does not include wind-driven waves on top of that. Therefore, with Katrina’s winds, it is entirely possible waves were damaging property as high as 40ft above sea level. Don’t forget those waters were full of debris which essentially acted like battering rams, pounding away at everything until it was broken into little pieces. This is similar to what happens to sea shells on surf breaks – simply pulverized, none left intact.
Mr. Lawrimore further writes:
... “Windspeeds over 140 mph were recorded at landfall in southeastern Louisiana” ... “As the hurricane made its second landfall on the Mississippi/Louisiana border, windspeeds were approximately 110 kts (125 mph). Gusts of over 80mph were recorded in Mobile and 90 mph in Biloxi, MS.”
b. Safe to say your dwellings experienced AT LEAST the approximated 110kts, if not more, that’s about 127mph. Gusts would have been around 130kts, that’s 150mph. Biloxi had AT LEAST 90 mph (I imagine that should be knots!), but even if it is correct, it would mean gusts in the neighborhood of 115 mph.
c. While SPC shows no tornado reports for your area on 8/29, that doesn’t mean there weren’t any. But, who would have been outside to see them? Or, how would anyone document them by a debris field, when the entire 4-state area was damaged by a major hurricane? Even dopplar radar, if any stayed on the air, would have a hard time picking up tornados amid hurricane winds.
Finally, a bit of perspective from Mr. Lawrimore:
“The central pressure at landfall was 920 mb, which ranked 3rd lowest on record for US-landfalling storms behind Camille (909 mb) and the Labor Day hurricane that struck the Florida Keys in 1935 (892 mb). Hurricane Andrew in 1992 dropped to fourth, as its central pressure was 922 mb at landfall. Katrina also reached a minimum central pressure of 902 mb at its peak, ranking 4th lowest on record for all Atlantic basin hurricanes.”
d. Point here being, no man-made dwelling could withstand this force of nature without severe damage or total destruction.
NOAA’s area sat photos of damage, covering LA, MS, AL, can be found at
http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/katrina/
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CharleySurvivor
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bvigal
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One more item... there are several members here who suffered damage or loss from hurricanes last year. They could certainly provide a lot of valuable advice for you, and how the differences between damage types and coverage (NFIP vs HO), effect claims paid!!
Meanwhile, here's link found on the FEMA site with help for filing claims
http://katrinainformation.org/disaster2/home/
Meanwhile, here's link found on the FEMA site with help for filing claims
http://katrinainformation.org/disaster2/home/
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Thanks to all who posted - God Bless
A big thanks to all who posted. The info will be a great help - knowledge is power and this board has helped equip me with some excellent data.
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