ITM Gentleman.
My home in Clearwater, Florida flooded during Hurricane Helene - 17 inches outside/ 6+ inches inside.
Per instructions from our Flood Insurance handbook/insurance company and county officials - we contacted FEMA to notify them of the flooding via online registration. Funny - as soon as I completed the form and uploaded it, I started to receive solicitation calls for roof inspections, home demo, etc. So - they are selling the data (no big shock - but it pisses me off).
Anyway - everyone on our street did the same registration. We were all contacted that we would receive an inspection. Turns out they all occurred on the same day/same guy. When the FEMA rep arrived at my house- he was armed with an ipad. He walked in my home and followed a questionnaire with prompts on the ipad. He only wanted to know how many bedrooms we had (he took a photo of each bedroom) and to confirm that each room had a bed. He also wanted to know how many tv's were in the home - and which rooms had a tv. That was it, that is all he asked. When he was done, I offered him water and some cookies - and he left. He went to the next house and when he was asked about the tvs - my neighbor challenged him as to why that was relevant info and the guy just left. So - what does TV ownership reflect in the algos that FEMA uses??
Anyway - a week later - I received my $750 and an additional $2600.00 direct deposited to my checking account. The neighbor who challenged the guy only got the $750.00. I guess those Publix cookies and water paid off. lol
The rub now is FEMA is conducting an assessment of Pinellas County to decide what neighborhoods had "Substantial Damage" vs. "Not substantial Damage". Anything less that 12 inches of water in the home is considered "Not substantial Damage" however, since the FEMA report is not complete and notification letters have not been sent to homeowners, the county is refusing to issue permits for repair because they don't want to upset FEMA - more accurately is to make sure they get as much money from the Feddy Gov as possible. It's all bullshit and we are unable to start the repair of our houses all while we live elsewhere paying both mortgages and rent. The level of anger in this county is growing and all anger is towards FEMA and the county.
TYFYC - and I hope other producers have some insight to the FEMA bullshit.
Thanks!
Lindy