August 29, 2005

Not much left. House has been painted. The the living room, kitchen and dining room curtains done. The yard needs some work. Will post pics later. But I think a little after and after pics would be cool. Looking back over the last 10 months, it hasn't been easy. I don't have many pictures of before the storm left, as they were on the computer, or they were ruined in the storm surge. And some rants about things that piss me off.

Before the storm	After the storm	After repairs
		Need to get a better pic of this one.

Amazing isn't it? By the way make sure you have flood insurance. After it has all been said and done, a little rant that pisses me off....

About $60k in damage to the house. Over $30k in contents loss. Over $12k loss in 2 antique cars.

FEMA SUCKS!!! They said we didn't have any damage, HELLO!!! We got that straightened out, and they processed our claim. We got nothing. We were even denied a FEMA trailer to live in for crying out loud!! We were referred to the SBA for a loan. WHAT?! In my opinion what they are saying is that... If you have a job and go to work, pay your bills and have excellent credit, you are SCREWED! If you have no job and on welfare, live in the ghetto and have shitty credit and don't pay your bills, and you have nothing to begin with, you can get a grant... FREE MONEY!! To blow at Wal-mart, or to buy some bling-bling for that new Escalade or Excursion. And you can live in a FEMA trailer park for free while still collecting welfare checks. It really pisses me off. So yeah, we got screwed. End rant, before I say something nasty.

THE INSURANCE COMPANY SUCKS!! It doesn't matter which one, they all suck. Our policy didn't cover flood. It was storm surge. Those bastards take your money each month, year after year, and then you get a denial letter when you make a claim? They are showed profits for the last quarter in the billions of dollars. Hello, how about some return to the policy holders?!!!!! I do not live in a flood zone, and therefore not required to have it. I definitely have it now! All my policies are cranked up to cover anything now, I hope.

So I bad mouth FEMA, so what. Well at least they have been clearing the debris from the area. The Red Cross wasn't much, help we saw them in our neighborhood a couple times.. Actually hats off to the Salvation Army...they had a lunch truck coming by everyday for about 1.5 months twice a day giving out free hot meals. Excellent! They have my support, they did OK in my book after the storm.

What else sucks? Ziplock bags suck. They don't keep water out of things, actually they held water, ruining anything inside them. Everything in my fire safe got wet... they were in Ziplock bags and closed. Marriage certificate, Savings bonds, pictures, titles to the cars, birth certificates, Jewelry, home movies of the kids... you know all the important papers that you need to keep in a safe place?! Kodak Paper sucks. Why don't they make the image on the picture like the printing on the back which says Kodak Paper? Any picture that got wet was smeared or turned to white paper. News reports suck. New Orleans, New Orleans, I don't give a damn about New Orleans. All the news reports focused on them, and just mentioned Mississippi. Even now all the books and DVD's on Hurricane Katrina focus mainly on New Orleans, SO FRIGGEN WHAT!! They got flooded because they didn't build good enough levees to keep the water out of their below sea-level crappy city. HELLO!!! Waveland, MS. is gone. Pass Christian, MS. trashed. Long Beach trashed. South and east Biloxi, trashed. South Ocean Springs trashed. Actually, an excellent video was put out by WLOX that covers Mississippi's story. Very good coverage on the the whole story of Katrina

The lines at Wal-mart, Lowes and Home Depot suck. Those companies made a KILLING after the storm!!! Good for them I suppose. The clean-up process has taken some time but it's getting better, but it'll never be the same. Anyway off my soapbox.

So, almost a year after the storm of the century, I look out my window and still see bent twisted trees. The grass is having a hard time this year, but the weeds are doing good. There are alot of houses that are just being bulldozed. There is still plastic bags and crap in the trees. There are still wonky houses along the beach. The casinos are just finishing up clearing the wrecked barges along the beach. Many abandoned houses, or they look that way, or still wrecked houses along the beach. Still alot of FEMA trailers around town. Hurricane season just started again... I sit and wait. What will this years season bring our way. Nothing I hope.

Enjoy.

Dec 2006 - 2006 Hurricane season is officially over. No storms this year!!! House is coming along pretty good. The only other thing is that the cabinets in the island in the kitchen have been replaced.