A year after Frances, some ache for home

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A year after Frances, some ache for home

April Hunt | Sentinel Staff Writer

Posted September 4, 2005

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knows that hurricanes damage more than belongings and

houses.

The registered nurse has been without both since Hurricane Frances

waterlogged her east Orange County home a year ago, after Hurricane

Charley tore off her roof.

A year after Frances, is among 16,270 families struggling to

get back to what passes for normal. Open insurance claims, such as

's, account for 3 percent of 540,000 statewide claims filed

after Frances, according to the Florida Office of Insurance

Regulation.

" There is no price you can put on my getting my family around the

dinner table again, " said. " That's all I want. "

Nevertheless, Hurricane Katrina has left with a new

appreciation for the hardships she has faced since Frances. For

days, she has watched the images on television of desperate people

in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi -- hundreds of thousands left

homeless -- and she feels grateful.

Even though is being forced to move into a homeless shelter in

Orlando, she signed up at disasterhelp.net to volunteer in the areas

devastated by Katrina.

By mid-September, she hopes to be relieving other nurses somewhere

in the Gulf states.

" I can't wait to go help take care of those people, " said. " I

appreciate what little I have because those poor people have

nothing, not even their own safety. "

Last year's unprecedented four storms in Florida seem minor compared

with the chaos and destruction in Katrina's wake. Yet there are

people in Florida who, like , are still waiting to get their

homes back.

Florida officials and contractors say finding skilled labor --

roofers and construction crews -- to handle the overwhelming

workload throughout the state caused delays.

In some cases, insurance adjusters came in far too low for repair

costs compounded by water and mold damage. That, too, stretched out

repair time until insurers got drawn into mediation or lawsuits,

said Bob Lotane, a spokesman for Florida Chief Financial Officer Tom

Gallagher.

Those cases might end up adding to the projected $5.11 billion loss

from Frances.

Hopes dampened

, 42, had hopes for a new beginning when, freshly divorced, she

bought the two-story pink stucco home in May 2004.

Son , then 15, sold her on the three-bedroom house as soon as

he saw it.

found a roommate to help cover the mortgage on the $145,000

home. She made plans to move in her 80-year-old mother.

Then Charley plucked off a third of her roof.

The nurse came home Aug. 15, two days after Charley and off a 30-

hour stint at Florida Hospital East, and found she could look from

her soggy home office up into dripping insulation.

She said she went to her State Farm agent's office the next day and

helped answer phones while she waited to tell her story. The office

sent a firm to rip out the wet insulation and carpeting, to prevent

mold.

As waited for an adjuster she never saw arrive, she tarped the

roof herself to stop water from coming in. Her patchwork was no

match when Frances hit Central Florida over Labor Day weekend last

year.

She finally left her home -- where the office floor had collapsed

into the kitchen below -- the next day.

" There was 4 inches of water on the first floor, " she said. " I felt

like it was the second round in a boxing match. "

The sanctuary she had made of her home quickly unraveled. Her

roommate left, leaving her without $750 a month.

then sent to live with his father and made sure her

mother could stay with a sister.

She has lived in a hotel room for almost a year now. But her

insurance stopped covering her stay in June and she has nearly maxed

out her credit cards to pay the $100 a night rate ever since.

Last month she missed her mortgage payment. Last week she was

completing paperwork, hoping to move into a shelter in the next few

days.

Yearlong delay

has tried to remain optimistic.

Last October, she hoped to be home by Christmas. She found a

contractor, Kish, who launched into her home repairs within

weeks of Frances. She drained $10,000 from her savings to keep the

crews working as she waited for insurance to pay.

But it took until June for State Farm to pay about $85,000 in

incremental checks, leaving about $45,000 short of what she

owes in home repairs and hotel bills, she says.

She is now suing State Farm, claiming breach of contract, and her

home still isn't ready.

Tom Hagerty, a spokesman for State Farm Florida, said the company

cannot comment on pending litigation.

's attorney, Earl Higgs, said he is representing a handful of

clients battling their insurers.

" People are so frustrated, " Higgs said. " They've been out of their

homes for a year now, and they're about ready to pull their hair

out. "

said she has found comfort in her job, caring for people at

the medical-surgical floor at Florida Hospital East in 12-hour

shifts three days a week.

" I'm emotionally at the end, " said. " I'm trying not to give

up, but I just want to go home. I know so well how they're feeling

[in the Gulf]. It's like being lost. "

April Hunt can be reached at 407-420-6269 or

ahunt@....