Update on My Parents

The best news . . they have electricity and water at their house! That’s 18 or 19 days without power. They are just across the river from Lake Charles. I’m not sure how much of Lake Charles has power or water but it’s all slowly coming back on. Chad is hoping to get to go home this weekend, but he was hoping to get to go home last weekend too.

My parents met with their adjuster this morning and the good news is that their house is not a total loss. They are pretty lucky in that when they built the house, they put in two central air units, each with its own return air system – totally independent of each other. One is for the master bedroom/bath, laundry room, kitchen and breakfast area. The other is for the extra bedrooms, baths, family room and dining room.

It was the extra bedrooms, baths, family room and dining room that suffered almost all the damage. So, they’re going to wall off the opening between the kitchen/family room so that will divide the house into two separate areas. They can live in the master bedroom, still have access to the kitchen. The sewing room is in a separate building and it was not damaged so they can put a TV in there and use it as a family room.

The damage estimate was pretty mind boggling. All the insulation, dry wall and floor coverings, as well as most of the doors have to be removed, the studs will have to be treated for mold and then it will be rebuilt.

If they didn’t have those two separate a/c units, they would not be able to stay in the house at all. Their insurance does cover living expenses while their home cannot be lived in but there are no places to live in the area so they would have to be two hours away and they are so ready to be home.

It won’t be ideal but it’s better than many folks there are dealing with. It’s going to take probably literally years for everyone’s repairs to be made – the damages are so great. My niece’s husband works in the commercial construction business so hopefully he can help them line up some good contractors.

Dad was 100% pleased with the adjuster, his advice and how they were treated. He has Shelter Insurance and my friend who lives in Lake Charles said Shelter seems to be getting good reviews from those affected. Some of the name brand insurance companies are really getting blasted because of the way they’re treating customers. So . . you never know til you need them and then it’s too late if you have a bad one.

I’m glad my parents got some bit of good news – they will be able to live in the house during at least most of the repairs.