Getting Ready to Survey the Damage

My next door neighbor from Slidell called me this morning. Her husband got there and said their house looks pretty good from the outside with just some siding missing. But inside, they obviously got a lot of water in the attic and the entire contents of the attic collapsed into the first floor of the house. Everything that was upstairs is now in the kitchen and dining room. She said that her husband told her that my house has a lot of siding missing, but she didn't elaborate. She told me to get my claim with State Farm started immediately.

I swear I must be living in some fantasy where I think we are going to go back with a hammer and some nails and put the shingles back on and never even need to file a claim.

We DO apparently have "loss of use" coverage for our home and State Farm is going to hand us a check as soon as I can get to an office that is open (probably Tuesday here in Tennessee), to cover the living expenses above our normal expenses and to cover temporary repairs. Yay!! I feel so much better now. They do encourage us to do temporary repairs to prevent further damage to our property if we can, but they want us to be careful if we do these repairs ourselves. My neighbor told us to bring some tarps to cover the holes in the walls and plenty of duct tape, nails and enough gas to get back out. We have to save all the reciepts, etc. and hire contractors if necessary, and to take a lot of pictures for our claim.


We'll know by tomorrow exactly what the damage is. Hubby is going to drive down tonight and arrive at daybreak, then hopefully get out of there before dark. Our next door neighbor did report that Slidell seems to be very safe from looting, etc. so that is probably not going to be an issue. My family is not happy with the idea of both of us going down and leaving the kids here, so I have taken their advice and have decided to stay in Nashville.

We have a huge list of stuff to bring down there to make temporary repairs including gas to get back out, duct tape, hammers, chainsaw, food, water, cameras, etc.)

We're headed out to the store right now to buy some of this stuff. It's great to be here in civilization where we can purchase what we need!

I really wish I could go with him and see the destruction and damage with my own eyes, but I'm sure it will still be there when I do get back in a couple of months. I really need to be here for my kiddos. No rush to see it I guess. Part of me is a little nervous now that he is going and we're going to be separated for a little while. I should have plenty of pictures to post when he gets back.