Florida/Alabama Update #4

FLORIDA (& NOW ALABAMA) UPDATE #4

December 18, 2004

It's time for another Florida Update, but this time it's coming from Mobile, Alabama. A lot has happened since my last update. Sorry, but we were so busy in Orlando that I just didn't have the time to do another one.

I think I sent the last Update on Sept. 24 a couple of days before Hurricane Jeanne was rolling our way. We decided not to evacuate this time, but we weren't sure if our 2nd story condo would hold up, so we booked a room at a Holiday Inn near Disney World, thinking that it would be a sound structure with a back-up generator in case power went out. We were a little dismayed when we got there and found we were on the 12th floor (top). We arrived about 6 p.m. Saturday night, Sept. 25 and around midnight Jeanne arrived. The wind howled and it rained sideways for about 14 hours. All day Sunday we were reminded of a howling Midwest blizzard, but without the snow. The patio door to our balcony rattled all the time and we thought it might come down, but it didn't. We didn't have any leaks in our room, but the hallway outside our door sprang a dozen or so. You had to walk around the buckets to get to the elevator. There must have been at least 75 buckets around the main lobby. The hotel was filled with people and dogs (literally). A boxer and a poodle mixed it up in the lobby but the bout was broken up shortly and there was no blood.

The damage from Jeanne was minimal compared to Charley and Frances, but it aggravated the whole situation as many of the tarps blew off allowing more rain to enter houses and more trees came down. There's a lot of confusion as to the number of deductibles these people had. Some companies said they were only applying one while others said each hurricane was a separate event so the deductible would apply for each claim, even though most people hadn't had a chance to have repairs made from the first one or two.

We finished up in Orlando the end of November and thought we might do some tourist things for a few days and then head home. But the folks we work for called and said they needed help in the Mobile, AL/Pensacola, FL panhandle for the damage they had from Hurricane Ivan (which missed Central Florida) so we headed there (here). We checked in at the storm office in Mobile on Friday, Dec. 3 and began work the next day. The hours were 7am to 7pm, 7 days a week!! We are file examiners, reviewing the work of other adjusters, doing re-inspections, and handling supplements. I said the hours "were" 7am to 7p.m because the other day they assigned both of us files to re-inspect, so we no longer go to the office everyday and can set our own hours. We both have files in the Mobile area and the Pensacola, FL area (about 70 miles east of here). These are mostly files where the first adjuster either missed something or the policyholder isn't happy with the first adjuster's estimate. Carol also has some big assignments including an 80-room Ramada and a 5-building golf course. She also has some non-hurricane related files, including a three-unit apartment fire. I've got several high-rise condominiums on the beaches in Pensacola Beach and Destin.

Because of the massive damage in Central Florida from Charley and Frances, all the well-trained adjusters were elsewhere and when Ivan hit the Panhandle, this area had to scrape the bottom of the barrel for adjusters and ended up with lots of rookies and (we're finding) incompetent adjusters who are no longer here. So we're doing what's referred to as "clean-up." We're flying home for Christmas on Dec. 23 and will return here on the 30th. It appears we'll be here for at least a few months and maybe most of next year. Our supervisor told us we can be the last to leave if we want to. We found a very nice furnished one-bedroom apartment in a gated community in a nice area of Mobile, so guess we'll stay with it for a while longer. Won't mind missing the snow and cold for one winter, although it got to 29 here the other night. Our blood has thinned out from being in the heat in Orlando.

We did have a great Thanksgiving. We flew to Columbia, SC, and visited my aunt & uncle, Norma & Tom Thompson and their family. Norma is my dad's sister, the daughter of my grandparents, Robert & Anna Anderson, Anna being the daughter of Han L. & Christine Andersen.

Guess I'd better wrap this up for now. Just wanted to give you all (notice "you'all?) an update of Bob & Carol's Excellent Adventures and of course wish all of you a most happy and blessed Holiday Season. Drop us a note when you get a chance.