Storm Web Log 2005

9/18/05 Sun: Arrival

I’m in Amite, La. After a long drive from Colorado. The day Katrina hit, I was closing on a house. We packed the old house in 8 hours, moved, & I left the next morning. Amite is 1.5 to 2 hours from the center of N.O.

After entering Louisiana the car windows were splattered with mating “love bugs” as the locals call them. So many, that you can’t see if you don’t stop & clean. An adjuster friend found this hotel room when there wasn’t a room to be found. Very lucky, and it’s close to the operational base of the company we’re working for. Even at lucky, the room is a representation of the whole situation down here. Flooded from damaged plumbing due to the storm.

Campers were streaming into the city down I55, and I began to see wind damage. Motel parking lots were jammed with bucket trucks, tree debris crews etc etc. As far away as Kansas National Guard convoys were making their way to the storm. I’ll see a lot more tomorrow as I head out with an associate to attempt access to New Orleans, recon damage across our claims area, and call & schedule inspections.

I’m very tired…. But the hotel room is set up. We had an operational meeting tonight. I learned that we are indeed independent adjusters. Its up to us to figure out safety and access to our claims. I need a respirator after the stories I’ve heard from those already here. Gaps and inconsistencies in our incoming information are rampant…including pay scale. But I am told this can happen on large storms so I’m just rolling with the info at hand.

Still so much to do, but I know things are going to get crazy very soon so I wanted to get this down.

9/19/05 Mon: HELL DAY

10.48p it got crazy….so pardon the abbreviated info.

Day one HELL day

woke up hotel room wetter than before. AC not as cold
got claims into folders, prepped, hit the road
Went into the heart of NO.traffic, roadblocks, devastatn. City let 180k ppl come in Superdome – city pix
Hell hot day, records broken, looked at some claims
Met 1^st insured, first loss pix, 30ft roof, 3 claims were commercial
Got tetanus shot @ city center, drove out, dinner, supply hell
Hotel room disaster, even wetter, AC unit failing. Clothes soaked. Cannot sleep there 2night. Cleaned car, finally got company car magnets.
Hotel got xtra rm. Moved room, setup, food, its cold & dry…yes, …..now 2do more work…..holy smokes!!

9/20/05 Tues: Locked out: Rita forms

10.54p Setback day for productivity.

N.O. shut down no access. Hurricane Rita is on its way. Made final supply run on way home. Called all claims.
Took badly needed 20 min nap. Did some work before heading out 2 dinn.
Evening was a loss. Dinn ran late, came back & had 2 finish W9 & Contract docs. Took 3x longer than necessary.
Decided to write off night as productivity loss. Visited with adjuster friend and talked abt the whole situation. The lockdown on the city due to Rita is helping me get an evening to relax, get a full night sleep & get paperwork going.
Off to bed.

9/22/05 Thurs: Locked out / Rita hits Fla

7.45p Locked out of the city again. Only access is for emergency and military so I focused on paperwork. A few observations:

Yesterday Hurricane Rita that hit the tip of Florida went back down to a tropical storm, then went from tropical to 175mph cat 5 in 36 hours.
Another adjuster friend came to town excited to be called to the storm. On the way he was asked to be put on standby for Rita going into Texas.
This is the craziest stuff I’ve ever seen….two historic storms back to back.
I’ve seen several people living out of their cars, vehicles stuffed with whatever they could grab.
I filled up the gas tank AND the overhead containers yesterday…..pumps started running out then, and today lines were long with everyone evacuating out of the storm’s edge. I heard Baton Rouge was about 4x its normal population.
A family was breaking apart MRE’s on the balcony & steps of the hotel. They’ve been here since Sept 6, a couple living out of their truck came in this week.
My friend started getting kidney stone pain at dinner (of all things to get in a hurricane) we almost had to bail from catfish dinner, but the pain subsided.
They’re evacuating everything in the path of Rita as well as everything near Rita in Louisiana. They’re at full contra-flow traffic where I drove through in Huston. That’s EVERY lane of i10 all going in the same direction. And even with that it’s a hundred miles of cars jammed at a standstill on the interstate. People traveling 10 hours to get 50 miles. People running out of gas after 12-16 hours, and tanker trucks running the shoulders and center areas trying to get gas to evacuees. I thought Katrina was the big one, and I can’t believe I’m watching such a massive evacuation AFTER everything I saw with Katrina….now its happening again.
Immense events colliding together at the same time. This is some crazy stuff. However after all is said and done hopefully everything will work out in the end.

Another adjuster friend called – he’s set up pretty well. Good pay scale, located 30 minutes out from claims thanks to a friend of a friend. He called it dumb luck. Have 35 claims he’s working on. The company he’s working for gave out $2000 checks just for being there through their own operational setbacks. Must be nice. He’s been here over 10 days and just started closing claims today.

9/25/05 Sun: Locked out / Rita hits gulf

Sunday 7:45am Getting ready for another day of pursuing my claims without access to the city

Thursday we began seeing the weather change, and I cranked on getting claims documented.
The weather began to change Friday. While that was happening, we seized the moment and went through some policy cramming with our supervisor.
I observed the day in amazement still having trouble absorbing the reality that I’m here watching all this happen.
After getting files prepped for return Friday, and staying up late enough to see Rita hit, I opened the hotel room Saturday morning to gusty unpredictable rain bands blowing through. As I worked, I had to wear my headset lamp because lights & cable were on & off through the day.
The company HQ lost power & internet most of the day. Crazy stuff.
N.O. is locked down, but I want to get as far as I can today. I want to be ready for the upcoming intensity.
Log entries may become sparse when that city opens up again.

9/30/05 Fri: N.O. work, convoys, devastation…..

8:10 am. The intensity is ratcheting up and I’ll enter what I can when I can

Been to the city twice this week. No access to residents except business owners. Work related to hurricane relief finally has access.
Tuesday on the long drive in, saw a convoy of Baptist churches, then a convoy of humane society and animal shelters. They had the faces of tender giving people, and the looks of concentration, intent, and even fear as they headed to the heart of something they’ve never seen. Having been there, I was moved thinking about how giving these people are and how their hearts have lead them here. Hard to put into words
Yesterday I came back for my 2^nd & 3rd scopes, and the city is beginning to show signs of life. More people, a handful of lights working in the downtown & business district.
Getting out of the city has been tricky. I got on i10 going E by accident, but all exits for turnaround were blocked off. I proceeded east to witness e mangled suburbs and empty streets as far as the eye could see stretching on for miles and miles into the distance. Everything was dead…… My chest felt, and my heart heavy from the sheer size and intensity of it all.
All the living had fled and are being kept out. A double impact of hurricane and immense flood. Boats were ditched every 1/2 mile or so along the highway.
I’m about to get too busy to enter anything more than a quick note. I’ll soon be working 2 insurance companies, two completely different processing procedures and policies in parallel, double the meetings, and more than triple the claims load.
I’m throwing myself into the breach and hope I can keep up.

Oct

Nov

Dec

10/29/05 Sat: A needed pause

I’ve been swallowed up by the claim and work load.

I haven’t even taken the energy/time to post updates. Too many days of pushing myself through mental exhaustion to keep from getting too far behind.
This week I backed off from the edge of burnout after 34 days of 16 hour or more days. It wasn’t the 16 hours as much as it was the pace.
I’ve eaten lunch & dinner out of the car when inspecting. When processing claims, I’ve eaten all most meals out of my car fridge in the room.
Essentially there’s no stopping because its a race against time. With every hour, more evidence of the storm either fades or gets erased. Its happening too fast. Homes are being gutted for flood, yards cleaned up, trees chopped down, and I’m racing to keep up.

Incoming claims are slowing down. But I still have over 60 people that want me at their house right now. Here’s some of the recent events:

With storms hitting the gulf, storms were hitting at home too, and hearts were tested. My Uncle died and a close friend of 5 years (my girlfriend’s dog “Nonami”) died. Both passed away on the same day. My Mom tended to my Uncle and My girlfriend to Nonami. Both girlfriend and mother did bedside care and treatment/medications until the very end. I called every chance I had, and grieved a lot….the stress, fatigue & heartache of the storm combined with the sadness and loss at home…..my heart feels stretched to its capacity. I don’t know what I have left, but it can’t be much…...

I watched in disbelief while yet ANOTHER hurricane dipped into the gulf. Wilma has swallowed up Florida. Three large hurricanes hitting in what….6 weeks?! Just another one of the “after learning how to do insurance adjusting, I NEVER thought……” phrases……. Ha Ha!
Here in Katrina land, neighborhood streets became lined with refrigerators and gutted house materials. Those streets were already beginning to echo with the murmurs of debris equipment, but there isn’t enough room to move around so everywhere streets blocks are closing at random for cleanup work making navigation a bit tricky at times even with guided GPS.
The space for cleanup is so tight, I watched a claw tractor accidentally back into and crush halfway through a car 2 cars behind mine before the guy looked over his shoulder to figure out what was hanging him up.
I went into the 9^th ward for one claim. The house was such a disaster of flood and mold I won’t even describe it, I just felt like burning my clothes when I got back to the hotel. The owner just sat and stared into his dead front lawn….tired, but doing OK. On the other end of the spectrum was a 3 million dollar home, 12 foot hand blown glass chandelier. Even the deck above his huge garage was marble.
All the refrigerators in the streets became miniature bulletin boards for homeowners and contractors. The “artwork” was a good outlet for everyone. At the end of one inspection, I paused in my car long enough to see the insured manhandled his fridge to the street, then he proceeded to demolish it with a sledgehammer.
Contractor signs have sprung up at every intersection like little forests of plastic stuck into the ground. Uptown N.O. is beginning to hum with people working to get their houses back together.
A huge mountain of house “guts” and tree debris has been building in east N.O. for weeks. It goes on for several football fields.

Large areas still without power, and some zip codes are just opening up. Good news is of the countless neighborhood one of a kind cafes and eateries are coming back to life and the culture of New Orleans is beginning to blossom little by little.
No time for me to slow down to enjoy it though. Only just enough to pause for a catch up entry and get back to it.

Oct

Nov

Dec

11/2/05 Wednesday: Moving to N.O.

Late night entry. Need to be brief. Tonight is the last night in the fleabag motel. I’m relocating to New Orleans and taking up a room in a house near a claim I did on Tuesday.

It’s a gamble I hope pays off. Less drive time = more work time = more claims closed. The house is vintage historic N.O. and beautiful. I feel very lucky and thankful to a family that is opening their house to me so I can make a difference. For the upcoming T-day holiday I have an unused free plane ticket so I can fly home for a break.

The insurance company and the company I’m working for are putting pressure to be done with all claims since incoming claims skidded to a halt the last 10 days. Lesson learned……. you’re respected if you close claims fast.

However, 95% of adjusters moving fast and doing high #’s simply cut corners with the insured and have other people clean up the loose ends in their estimates on the back end of the claim. Only 5% can do both. This is a hell of a storm to try to figure out the balance, but I’m trying.

11/17/05 Thurs: The “crush”, new friends, completion

I’ve been living in the center of the city and at the edge of “the shelf” on the edge of a large flood area in the center of the storm for 14 days now. This house is 5 blocks from the end of the working power grid, and where the primitive banks of the Mississippi begin to drop away.

Driving home at night is pretty strange, but the new location inspires me to work hard. I’m in the heart of the “storm” minutes from claims and as I rebuild homes in the computer, the air hammers on homes being put together echo all around me through the neighborhood. The family is great and the husband is a top notch individual. The wife and kids are displaced for the purpose of school, and the husband goes back & forth but spends the week in town. They did invite me down for a very nice dinner/birthday party they threw the first weekend after I moved.

I’ve done nothing but survive 7 days a week in the crush of work, but the range of experiences have been a test:

From getting hounded by a shady lawyer threatening to serve me papers, to being taken out to an excellent dinner by a circuit court of appeals judge and international law professor (the only other break I’ve taken besides the family dinn).
From claims with 8+ feet of flood devastation in the Lakeview suburbs 70124 zip code, to staring at a $25,000 sink in a high rise on the edge of Lake Pontchartrain, I’ve seen a decent spectrum of the damage physical and emotional. However, there are huge areas of the city so devastated the claims have been pulled, and access is still closed.
BIG MILESTONE: I completed all inspections on Sunday and have been doing only claims processing since.

I badly need to rest eyes and hands so I will sign off.

11/29/05 Tues: Thanksgiving & back to work

Back in N.O. today after a very much needed escape to Colorado for Thanksgiving. It was soooo nice to be in a “normal” city where the guts of the buildings aren’t piled up on dirty streets.

When I flew out of N.O. it was dark. Flying in this afternoon there was a sea of blue tarps. A powerful indication of how many houses still don’t have their money and/or their roofing contractor. And driving on Claiborne, I was expecting to see more traffic lights working, but alas…..just like I left it. There’s so much work left to do its amazing.

I had a chance to see my friend Keith perform in his duo while I was in Denver. Great reminder of the good times that come with playing music. Something to look forward to.

I’m pretty tired, so I will sign off. But one of my holiday “resolutions” was to give a little more time to myself instead of going to exhaustion for the work 7 days a week. That means I’ll be able to add more here. Which I plan to.

Oct

Nov

Dec

12/1/05 Final stretch

Late entry.

I finished my toughest claims today, only 6 remaining
The grocery store was packed, so I finally ended up eating in the neighborhood. I found a small Italian pizza bar and while they forgot my order, I ended up chatting with a girl just out of law school & her sister about the whole New Orleans challenge of rebuilding, the stress, the fatigue, and the uncertainty about the future.

Even with that, it turned out to be a relaxing evening. I was fed dinner and a drink on the house for the order mishap.

I’m in the final stretch of closing claims, so it’s time to sign off.

12/2/05 Fri: Two claims to go

2pm. I’ve been working this storm since Sept 19. Only TWO claims remaining! Taking a moment to jot a note before a difficult claim call to tell someone what isn’t going to be covered.

What an insurance nightmare this storm is and this claim is a great example:

Hurricane hits, doesn’t damage inside of house.
Flood hits, devastates interior with 4 feet of flood.
SPCA knocks door in looking for survivors.
Door stays open & Rita hits damaging the inside on top of flood.
However everything below 4 feet was already damaged by flood before Rita damaged it, but everything above 4 feet wasn’t damaged by flood…….

Interestingly enough, one of the last claims brings me back to music again. I have to leave out a lot of info, but he wrote some very famous well known songs, and was a founding member of a great band in the 70’s. I had an opportunity to take a little camera video of him singing from a sheet of music in his studio during the inspection. It was the song he was writing just before he had to evacuate. His attitude was exceptionally good considering the damage he had, and I’m looking forward to doing his claim today.

12/4/05 Sunday: Birthday!

Da da da da da DAA ..they say its my Birthday!…. And it is. I was happy to wake up for the first time since Sept 19 without the pressure of closing a claim, and it felt GREAT!

Brief entry here. Had a nice day to myself, contacted family, ate a great lunch on Bourbon st and finished with a much deserved afternoon nap.

I plan to try to find more work in Fla, but the company I work for hasn’t sent people down for 2 weeks. So its either find more work, or pack and go home. I’m not quite done in the big easy though, I plan to have a little fun restaurant hopping and hearing some of the live music that has returned.

Recently uploaded claims are getting reviewed now, and I’ll be doing a game of “cat & mouse” clearing rejections while doing cleanup on remaining misc claim units in preparation to shut all units down. In a few days it’ll all be over and my path to home or Florida will be clear by that point.

12/8/05 O.J.T. & the ninth ward

I spent Monday trying to shut remaining claim units, but my lead said to keep them open through the week. Being unmotivated to do the small tidbits of cleanup, I called an adjuster friend who closed double the claims I did and asked if I could ride with him & learn some tricks.

Luck was on his side in this storm. No claims in N.O. the first 2 months, lenient file reviewers, support staff for scheduling and routing inspections, only 1 insurance company to work, and close location for duration of storm.

I spent Tues – Wed going out with him. I learned what I could from him & he was able to pick up some tips from me on the computer end. It was the perfect thing to do! If I can find more work, I’m inspired to go make more money.

Wednesday we ended inspections at a slab in the 9^th ward. It was his last day of inspections and what a way to end it. After the slab loss we took time to drive & photo some of the 9^th ward. You can’t grasp it unless you’re there, and if you are, you still can’t get your mind around it, but like me, he said his chest was starting to feel weird. He thought it was the air. I like to think it’s a primitive reaction to seeing a “village” destroyed.

About 6 blocks from the 9^th ward levee break where the barge broke through, the neighborhood is very strange. The houses, cars, trees, fences are all still there……but nothing is where its supposed to be. Houses on top of cars, on top of trees. Cars on top of fences, cars UNDER houses, houses stacked on houses, against houses, and dropped into the middle of streets……and houses gone…only the scrambled remains of trees with debris & cars snared inside their branches. We left before our brains became too scrambled and overloaded from what we saw.

Today I’ll do this storm log, play guitar, and do what little work there is left while I call headquarters and adjusters working in Florida.

12/12/05 Photos, parties & “standing down”

Monday. Had a great weekend.

I attempted to treat my “landlord” to dinner Friday and failed miserably. We ended up at a free wine tasting, then were coerced into dinner with a builder, banker, estimator & contractor & the builder covered it & didn’t want anyone whining about him paying. Then it was off to drinks where I attempted in vain again to pay for something.

Saturday I committed myself to documenting Chalmet, a suburb southeast of the 9^th ward, and a few more photos of the 9^th ward. Its been almost 31/2 months and 95% of the Chalmet suburb looks like the storm hit yesterday….no one is there. I went for over 30 minutes at one point before I saw or heard anyone.

Saturday evening was a company campground cookout up north, then an invite to a Christmas party hosted by a relative of my “rent a family”. That was fun. Antique furniture is everywhere down here, and the finishes on every piece in this house were perfect.

I did my Christmas shopping Sunday, prepped it for shipping, and relaxed. That was a great day too. They have the shopping thing DOWN in N.O. All the shops had wine or champagne. And everyone had cookies & chocolate……smart, except it I was ready to sleep the rest of the day after shopping.

After a week of waiting for files to be reviewed, closed, and for last minute documents to come in from insureds, today I attempted to “stand down” from the storm. My operational status changes and I become unavailable for supplemental inspections on my claims, and all my claims units are shut down. This means I can go home. But ironically Farmers has deployed support staff assigned to me … to Denver for a newly declared catastrophe from freezing pipes so that will be delayed another day.

I’m going to look into an offer I got today for some local work estimating and doing sales. I’m hoping I can use that opportunity for more money before I go home. After being here so long, I don’t have a lot of motivation to take on work where company and income are uncertain. But it could be a chance for decent money.

12/16/05 Freedom, Food, & Music

I’m a free man as of yesterday!!

I didn’t get the work I was expecting from the company. Its already Friday, and there isn’t enough time to make significant money and get back for Xmas.

So yesterday afternoon I handed my work over and stepped away from the company. At that moment, any commitments requiring me to stay in New Orleans were gone….so I hit the red fish company on Bourbon street to celebrate. Good food.

There’s nothing keeping me here anymore. WOO HOO

My “landlord” came home last night. He is beat down from months of N.O. businesses dying at his doorstep of his business every day, and the pressure on his own business of income vs bills. So I offered dinner after he dumped out all his frustrations over a quick martini. We went to one of the neighborhood eateries I’d been wanting to go to for so long. This one was called the Mango House. Everything (mussels, fish, wine, brule) was outstanding, and we had some great conversation. Then we dropped into a local 7 day music bar where a piano solo act was singing and holding down his weekly Thursday slot.

What a great way to “stand down” from Katrina.

I want to get out for some food and music tonight too. Then maybe I’ll head out Saturday or first thing Sunday. Not sure yet, but I’m enjoying today and will begin packing. J

12/17/05 New Orleans Music

Tonight is going to be my last night in N.O. So I finally went to hear the music.

I spent the later evening on the 600 block of Frenchmen st and witnessed the musical “gumbo” that is unique to the artistic jewel that is New Orleans. Five completely different bands in one block on one street. After seeing a dead city, then the musical heart of the city dead……it felt so good to see the music and people coming back to life. People here come to the bars to escape into the music, and they hang on every phrase and song. That isn’t very common in Denver, but seems to be the rule here.

I heard vocal artist Germaine Bazzle with an amazing keyboard player named Ed Peterson at Snug Harbour. Those jazz musicians get what its all about and you can hear it in every breath of the music they create. I don’t know why Denver attempts “jazz” when something like this exists. Very cool. It was lot of fun meandering from bar to bar and band to band after the set at Snug Harbour.

This was the perfect way to finish my time here.

I’ll leave today as soon as I’m packed. I’ve been invited to St Francisville for a relaxing evening at the 2^nd home of the family where the kids are going to school. 80 ft hardwood trees, lake, and nice countryside. It’s a perfect way to take a few hours off of the long 2 day drive, and it provides a nice transition into the road trip home.

12/18/05 The Road Home / Reflections

Today I left Louisiana. The stay in St Francisville with the “rent a family” was a welcome change. After you’ve had the pressure of a devastated city outside your window for so long, knowing there was no hurricane outside the walls of their 2^nd home was a welcome relief. Once again, I’m very thankful for their hospitality and warm hearts.

I drove in Sept 18 and left today exactly 3 months later. Interestingly enough, it worked out that I stopped in Ardmore OK & decided to pull into the same hotel I stayed in when I was learning how to be an adjuster.

If tonight could be transported back in time and superimposed over a night from that past…….. Someone from the future could tell me to put down my studies on policy and get out on the hotel hotel deck to witness me from 9 months in the future driving in from the dark night returning home for Christmas after adjusting in the heart of the worst natural disaster in US history.

The mind of the Eric from the past would fill with total disbelief, then with questions about the disaster; how did it come to be, what did I see and how did I handle it. And possibly the most burning question….had the experience changed me…and if so how was I different.

Tonight I lay in bed typing this in the same hotel and I think to the “old” me back in time… right over there across the parking lot in that other room. All the preparation I had to done to learn & to be ready for what storms might come…..and here I am with those 9 months and Katrina behind me….It changes you. Some changes I see & feel now, while others are yet to be realized.

I’m going home now more than who I was. New in some ways, and older in others, but my life, and the life I want to create waits for me to return tomorrow.

PHOTO: View to N.O. standing inside the levee break at the edge of the 9^th ward.