I have flood insurance, and the water came back up thru the storm drain in my basement the other day. I had about 30 some odd inches of water in my basement with a freezer floating, another freezer under the water, washer, dryer, furnace, water heater, tons of picstures and scrapbooks, and tons of misc stuff. Granted....all the big ticket items are still operational after everything dried out. The adjuster made the mistake of talking to my wife and she had told him that everything was working still so he didn't even come to look at anything! We won't even go there! I talked to the adjuster and our coverage is cut in half because it came up thru the drain. No biggie, but what should I be looking at? I plan on having all the appliances checked out by a professional, and am line item listing all the small stuff, but I'm worried about long term affects on the appliances. What should I ask for? Is he gonna think I am trying to scam them after talking to my wife? I was a little on the upset side after finding this out when I got home last night!

If any of you have been thru this before, I'd appreciate any insight you could share.

 

I thought if it came up through the drains you would have full coverage, and if it come through the doors you get nothing.

 

assuming that it backed up i would see if backflow preventers are required by the city. are you sure it was storm and not san water? in either event, i would see whose liability is on demand, yours or the utilities.

 

I live in a small town and nothing is required. I am looking into getting one though! Insurance isn't saying they aren't liable, just want to know if I should ask for new? Or just how to handle the big stuff? This kind of thing happens once every blue moon. We had almost 6 inches of rain in a 12 hour period. Here is a link to a town real close to me. Devastating.

http://www.myfoxchicago.com/myfox/My...1&locale=EN-US

 

And yet another video courtesy of Fox Chicago. My town got hit, but all of our water heads west to this town. Our water receded after only about 6-10 hours. And was never as high as this to begin with. According to GPS and survey maps.....the top of the water tower in this town is lower than main street in my town!

http://www.myfoxchicago.com/myfox/My...1&locale=EN-US

 

Pics of 2 dams about 35 miles from my house too.

 

I aint got no flood insurance, I live an a hill in a -5" a year rain fall zone. PLus Death Valley is only an hour and half away.

I do have fire insurance though, 128 F is not unheard of! with zero humidity!

Insurance companies always seem to jerk you around, Good luck!

Don't float away! And don't drown that cummins!

 

Nahh....we're fine now. Just trying to clean up the mess!

 

Are your basement walls finished off? Carpet or furniture down there?


Tim

 

Even if everything is working now, That doesn't mean your appliances won't fail prematurely. Nothing is the same after it has had water in it! I would try to work out SOME kind of deal with the adjuster. And that won't be easy!

 

That is what I'm aiming for. I'm not expecting them to buy me all new appliances, but I would like some sort of compensation due to the fact that I know they are going to have a diminished life expectancy. My basemnt had painted walls and floors. Nothing fance at all. Just a nice storage area and laundry area. Still, hated to see it fill up with water!

 

Cool, I was thinking of a mold issue if you had anything finished off, best of luck with everything.

Tim

 

The first part of July this year we got 22" of rain in one storm and the Potawatomie river overflowed it's banks to eventually flood parts of town. A friend's house had water come up through the drain and fill his basement and then as the river came over the banks it wouldn't have made any difference. He had freezer full of meat, clothes, furnace, water heater, and much more down there. His ins. co. gave him $5000. Then FEMA came through the neighbor hood and evaluated everything. They offered him much more then the 5K. He had not cashed the ins. check so he returned it and got the larger amout.

The furnace replacement was near the 5 K because it needed new ductwork because off flood water contamination/fear of mold growth.

We put everything in trash bags and hand carried it out. Took 5 guys probably 15 hours to remove it all.

I'd inquire with neighbors, or other ins. companies to see what's normal, or internet searches before I'd take any funds. Everything had to be disinfected, including walls. Had to wear rubber gloves, face mask, boots to work in the area. FEMA required hepitatus shots. There's more involved then it first appears.

 

Well, after talking to a lot of people that had water, there seems to be enough airflow in my 100 yr. old basement to not have to worry about mold. My biggest concern is the appliances. I'm trying to get my ins. agent to tell me who else had claims ( very small town ) so I can see what they have done about it too.

 

Oh boy, the big bad greedy insurance companies.......Amazing how you pay an insurance company to protect you or cover your expenses when an event happens that you're paying a premium for yet they still try to look for a way out, or at least a way to diminish the claim....

I'm down in Indy, or just south in Greenwood. I've been watching the coverage of the flooding that you have all been going through up north. We got quite a bit of rain here too, but it seems like it really takes a whole lot of rain to affect areas as a whole. Every now and then some small hoods flood and several are displaced, but not on large scales where entire towns and cities are under water. My buddy has property in Mooresville and was complaining about our efforts to drain the pond on the property to clean it out......we had it over half drained, and it was already way low to begin with from the dry summer......this one storm filled it back up to just over the normal level.....I was like dude, why are you complaining?! Seen the news lately?