Helene hit Florida's Gulf Coast last week

Don't we have a poster from Valdosta, Ga? City is under water right now, took on more rain than any other part of a populated area in Georgia. NC was just taking on rain before Helene added to it. Worse case scenario for them.

 

There ya are. Was reading that Valdosta got hit hard with many emergencies ongoing:

 

Tampa Bay area. Far more damage than I imagined.

 

For some levity. Hope everyone and your families are safe.

 

Not sure what the elevation was. It was level with the parking lot for the most part and just a few feet above the river at high tide.

 

My mother in law went though it with Ian.

Insurance generally says it’s best to try to secure the property. Hope you have flood coverage it may take months. The best bet to take photos of everything first then start ripping out the bad stuff. They cut up 4 feet from the ground just as easy to replace a sheet as a strip. Also they got the house dried out as fast as they could. Cabinets went out also.

Beware the flood remediation companies. They can charge a ton and sometimes try to get benefits assigned so they take the first money form the Ins company.

 

take pics of everything
strip drywall and carpet up to min 6" above flood line
take pictures
spray everything with mix of bleach and water
let dry. ventilate well if a/c is not an option then rent fans
an ounce of prevention at this point is worth a pound of cure
hope you have flood insurance

 

It's definitely low. Have friends who have a store couple of blocks from there but on much higher ground and they had several feet of water inside that gutted the place.
Keaton Beach looks like a bomb exploded. Massive destruction

 

The mold grows surprisingly fast. As others said, cut the sheet rock and get insulation out. If 6” I would still cut 2’ although it is often easier to do full sheets. Spray all the studs and get lots of fans.

The scale of the flooding from Florida to Tennessee is astounding.

 

Yep. It was pretty rough. I saw a couple businesses near the hospital that had power, but that's it. They are saying at least a week to restore power to most of the residents.

I stayed with my gf last night and I'd say 5 of the 9 closest houses to here have trees through their roofs. The one in her backyard miraculously fell between her and her neighbor's house. I went out the side door to look around while we were in the eye, and seeing that tree laying down in yhe driveway freaked me out a lil bit, tbh.

I'll get a couple pics uploaded tomorrow. Kinda wish I had pulled the trigger on a a dashcam a while back.

The crazy thing is the out of town tree services. One dude walked in her yard and quoted her $8k to remove the tree in the driveway and the top of one out of the pool. I laughed under my breath and he went out to the truck and came back with a quote of $3k.... lol. Gtfoh. She got both done for $1,100 from another company.

 

Electric vehicle likely to blame for Davis Islands house fire

Another electric car fire this one on Davis Island.

 

The sad thing is much of the damage I'm seeing is water related and many do not have flood insurance.

As for the rebuild I'm sure the vultures will soon be out. Hoping for a responsive insurance industry this time but having lived thru cane damage in the past id suggest anyone with significant damage have a good attorney ready just in case.

 

Just be prepared to wait.

Under Fla law is the house is deemed a total loss ins has to pay policy limits. If you have Ordiance and law coverage that can be accessed if the rebuild is in excess of the policy limit.
Now if the damage is due to flood”rising water”. All bets are off as that usually goes under flood ins.

Some of the houses up the road from me that suffered damage with Ian and Nicole have been removed and the land now is for sale as the HO ins isn’t on the hook for wave action destroying the house. Flood has limits and most is 250k not enough to rebuild a house. These people even though they live on the ocean and have 1.5 million properties don’t have the capital to rebuild. Quite a few have owned (or did) for decades.

 

Are you gonna report on the fires from gas-powered generators, or just the Elon Musk stuff?

 

No generator fires have been reported.

But I wasn't being malicious. I posted 3 because those are confirmed. I have heard through word of mouth that there have been several more around South Tampa.

 

They come after the storm is gone . Just wondering if you will be so vigilant about those mishaps.

 

Probably not because I would have moved on and doubt the news would be reported. But feel free to post about it yourself.