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    Disaster Manual for Financial Recovery: A Self Help Guide to Receive the Most Disaster Funds
    Disaster Manual for Financial Recovery: A Self Help Guide to Receive the Most Disaster Funds
    Disaster Manual for Financial Recovery: A Self Help Guide to Receive the Most Disaster Funds
    Ebook233 pages2 hours

    Disaster Manual for Financial Recovery: A Self Help Guide to Receive the Most Disaster Funds

    By Robert Winter

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    About this ebook

    Risking his job, Robert Winter, a 25-year veteran FEMA inspector, reveals what insurance companies and FEMA don't want you to know about how to get the most money from your insurance AND FEMA should a disaster occur. With weather experts predicting a harsher than normal 2015-16 winter due to the effects of the El Nino phenomenon, the time to read this newly-released manual is now.

    Dealing with the nightmare of insurance, "the disaster after the disaster", this book includes advice and tactics on how to handle insurance companies if you're being treated unfairly. Stories from Hurricane Sandy and other major disasters show how you can't and should never rely on the federal government or FEMA to "save the day", which certainly didn't happen to the over 1800 people who died during Hurricane Katrina. This book also offers practical tips provided by insurance professionals about having "the right kind of insurance" to protect you and your family before a disaster occurs when choosing an insurance policy.
    The back section of the book provides checklists for not only disaster preparedness, earthquake preparedness and facts from the Red Cross about how to survive an earthquake, it includes household inventory sheets and more tips to help you prepare for what could be the worst day of your life, especially if you live in a high risk area of the country.

    This is Robert Winter's second book. His first, Dust in the Wind: Real FEMA Disaster Stories, personified his growth as a humanitarian. Through sometimes hilarious circumstances and other times tragic, this book provides more than a glimpse of what truly happens behind the scenes and what is far removed from the media spotlight during a disaster. But more importantly, how crisis can bring out not only the worst in people, but also the best.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRobert Winter
    Release dateAug 8, 2015
    ISBN9780996422932
    Disaster Manual for Financial Recovery: A Self Help Guide to Receive the Most Disaster Funds
    Author

    Robert Winter

    Robert Winter is Professor of Music at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is author of Music for Our Time (1992) and co-author of The Beethoven Sketchbooks (California, 1985). Robert Martin is Assistant Dean of Humanities and Adjunct Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Los Angeles.

    Read more from Robert Winter

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      Book preview

      Disaster Manual for Financial Recovery - Robert Winter

      DISASTER MANUAL FOR FINANCIAL RECOVERY

      A SELF HELP GUIDE TO RECEIVE THE

      MOST DISASTER FUNDS

      ROBERT WINTER

      Copyright 2015 Robert Winter

      Smashwords Edition

      Las Vegas, NV 89131

      License Notes: This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      DISCLAIMER

      This book is a memoir based on certain events, locales and conversations from the author’s memories of them. In order to maintain the anonymity of individuals and places, some identifying characteristics and details such as physical properties, occupations and places of residence have been changed, and in some instances the people, places and stories portrayed do not in any way alter the outcome of any material portion of this text.

      Copyright 2015 Robert Winter Las Vegas, NV

      ISBN-13: 978-0-9964229-3-2

      ISBN-10: 0996422935

      PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

      http://WWW.DUSTINTHEWINDFEMABOOK.COM

      FOLLOW ROBERT WINTER AT:

      DustInTheWindfemabook.com

      Facebook.com/dustinthewindFEMAbook

      Instagram/Femadude15

      Twitter.com/@DustInTheWindBk

      YouTube.com/FRECKSZONE

      Celebrities4DisasterRelief.org

      Email: FEMADUDE15@aol.com

      "Insurance isn’t the best answer,

      it is the only answer, but the right coverage is imperative!"

      ~Frecks Smart quote

      This book is dedicated to the victims of disaster,

      who are always on my mind.

      Table of Contents

      Prologue: Why This Manual is so Important

      Introduction: Don’t Let This Happen to You!

      Providing Help, Hope and Comfort: A Hurricane Charley Story

      SECTION ONE: Insurance Companies – How to Protect Yourself With Insurance Companies and From Insurance Companies

      My Ongoing Education

      Why I Hated Insurance Companies

      Don’t Care, Screw Everyone & Whoops, My Bad

      A Quick Comparison: Insurance Adjusters and FEMA Inspectors

      Get Real: The Truth About Insurance

      Insurance Facts: A Brief Comparison

      FEMA Facts: A Brief Comparison

      Get the Details

      Hurricane Charley N.A.D.A. Guidelines

      The Finger of Blame

      Rules to Insure By

      Frecks' Table

      Due Diligence

      An Insurance Story: California Fires

      Insurance Company Patterns: The Big Picture

      Adjusters & Inspectors: A Second Look

      How Do You Protect Yourself?

      Fighting the Big Guys: Responding to Your Insurance Company

      Dispute Scope of Loss

      Complaint to the Insurance Commissioner

      Choosing a Public Adjuster

      The Rookie Issue

      Wrapping it Up

      What's Happening at Insurance Companies Today

      SECTION TWO: FEMA – How to Help FEMA Help You

      How to Get a Good FEMA Inspection

      Owners vs. Renters

      Disaster Recovery Centers (DRC)

      Help Us Help You

      Respect the People and the Process

      Some Things to Be Aware of (RED FLAGS)

      Update 2015

      The Dream is Over!

      What's Happening at FEMA Today

      SECTION THREE: Helpful Info, Forms & Lists Before, During and After a Disaster

      Disasters Happen Without Warning! Don't Wait Until the Last Minute to Get Supplies

      Disaster Preparation, Emergency Supply & To-Do List for Everyday Safety

      Emergency Supply Kit Shopping List

      Red Cross Earthquake Preparation

      Florida Resources for Policyholders

      Acknowledgments

      About the Author

      Notes & Resources

      Checklists

      FEMA Inspection Checklist

      Frecks' Top 15 Checklist

      Insurance Inventory Checklist

      WHY THIS MANUAL IS SO IMPORTANT

      BACK TO TOP

      You have probably heard the drumbeat of disturbing news reports and seen the endless parade of alarming headlines over the past years, especially lately with the Texas floods this summer. We live in the most unpredictable of times and see behind the headlines, the depth of the challenges that we confront.

      Most weather experts predict that over the next decade, the hurricanes will be more powerful, the storms more frequent and severe, with fires more deadly as global warming patterns continue to alter our way of life and our relationship to nature.

      Some international groups on global warming have stated several times that North America will experience more hurricanes, floods, droughts, heat waves and wildfires while the coastlines will be swamped by rising sea levels. The human lives lost, economic impacts felt and the social disruptions will be enormous.

      With the warnings now so frequent and so clear, people must be preparing themselves, RIGHT?

      WRONG! Despite the lessons of Katrina, Rita, Ike, Sandy and other devastating hurricanes, one-third of all the people living in high-risk areas say they will ignore future evacuation orders. These studies have been done along the coast from Texas to North Carolina, some of the most high risk areas in America for hurricanes. The findings were unbelievable that people view their homes as safe and evacuating as dangerous with most of them planning on staying. And with most believing they would be rescued if they needed to be. Hey, they see it on television all the time with people being rescued!

      Other alarming information is that two out or three people in high risk areas DO NOT even have an agreed upon meeting place in the event their family is separated during a disaster. Half of them DO NOT have $300 in cash on hand to use if they need to evacuate and if public services, such as ATM machines, are no longer functioning. One quarter of them DO NOT own a first aid kit. Over 70 percent in hurricane prone areas don’t have a survival plan.

      Even in the aftermath of Katrina, Rita, Ike and Sandy, most of these people have not prepared a survival kit, planned evacuation routes or secured adequate insurance. They are still depending on government agencies to keep them safe and to rescue them. After Katrina, do you really feel safe knowing FEMA is going to come to the rescue and save you? How many of those people who are no longer with us because of that storm thought that as well?

      Examining the Katrina disaster, a storm long predicted by weather experts, PBS created a documentary entitled The Storm, an hour-long FRONTLINE investigation [1] into how every branch of the government, from local to state to federal, stood unprepared, overwhelmed and in chaos in the summer of 2005 when the hurricane struck, killing over 900 people in New Orleans alone and causing over 1,800 deaths overall.

      The last disaster of that magnitude occurred four years earlier with 9/11. Weren't any lessons learned about communication standards during those four years between first responders, local, state and federal governments and its agencies?

      How about when the next earthquake hits? More than likely, with all the quakes around the world, it's going to be BIG. We haven’t had a Loma Prieta or Northridge quake in over 20 years and be assured, the pressure is building on those faults. The latest report dated July 30, 2015 targets the highly populated Seattle, Washington area. Are we ready for that?

      If you purchase only one disaster manual for Financial Recovery and Preparedness in your lifetime, this is the ONE. For the first time ever, a FEMA inspector, a longtime expert in the disaster field, reveals what sort of help ordinary people can realistically expect from FEMA and/or their insurance company when a disaster of any type occurs.

      You'll learn how to create your own disaster preparedness plan and kits but most of all, how to use Federal/State agencies and insurance companies to facilitate your own financial disaster recovery.

      Robert Winter, aka Frecks

      INTRODUCTION

      DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU!

      BACK TO TOP

      You can't stop a natural disaster from occurring, nor can you prevent a lot of other things from going wrong. What you can do is prepare and protect yourself and your loved ones in the years, months, weeks or even days before something transpires. Having an emergency supply kit is great, but there is so much more that you need to know in order to prevent the very worst - what I call the disaster after the disaster from happening when crisis actually strikes. Some of you might not have considered this or have an adequate disaster preparation plan until it is way, way too late.

      After spending over 25 years working closely with disaster victims, I have found that two of the most important matters people are either not adequately informed of, or are often misinformed about, are INSURANCE and FEMA policies and procedures.

      When a disaster strikes, hopefully you will have insurance and it will be the right kind of insurance. You will be able to call your company, they will send an adjuster to inspect your property and you'll be compensated adequately. At the same time, whether you have insurance or not, you may also need FEMA assistance. It might be extremely difficult for you to understand just how FEMA works. [2] I have witnessed many lives destroyed by this lack of information and as a result became convinced to write this book.

      In my years of doing contract FEMA work, I can tell you without the least bit of doubt that disasters can hit you physically by causing injury to yourself or to family members, financially by damaging your home and your belongings, or by destroying everything altogether. They also often hit you mentally and emotionally by leaving you terrorized or fearful both during the disaster and the aftermath. A disaster can even hit you at such a deep level that you feel nothing but despair. You may end up thinking everything has been lost - including hope. I regularly encounter people wondering how or if they can ever live in their homes again. They also may be realizing at the same time that they had failed to prepare for any sort of disaster. Or, they may discover that they never actually had adequate insurance coverage although they paid high premiums faithfully thinking that they did.

      It does not have to be this way! And why I’m providing you with the very valuable, even lifesaving information and advice contained in this book.

      To demonstrate what I mean by life-saving information, let me begin with one of the main reasons I became convinced that reading this book could save not only your quality of life, but perhaps your actual life or the life of a loved one.

      PROVIDING HELP, HOPE, AND COMFORT

      A Hurricane Charley Story

      Perhaps it was a bad omen that Hurricane Charley hit on Friday, August 13th. The first of four hurricanes to hit Florida in 2004, this Category 4 storm packed winds at 150 mph. Obviously it did a tremendous amount of destruction and caused more than 15 deaths with over $16 billion in damages. It was one of the top ten worst storms in United States history. The strength of the storm alone meant it was going to leave a lot of unhappy stories in its wake.

      Here is one story from this storm:

      I had been doing my inspections in post-Charley days when I ended up at a mobile home park. While finishing up my work at one home, I noticed an elderly man seated outside of his home. He looked a little worse for the wear, and so I asked him if he was okay.

      In his 80's, the guy was clearly exhausted and a bit traumatized by what had just gone down in the days before. I was surprised at what had happened to his trailer as it had been clearly cut in half by the power and force of the storm. The frame sat bolted to the ground, but half of the mobile home was entirely missing.

      He had a bedroom, bathroom and part of a tiny kitchen left. It was a wreck. Another inspector had already done the work, so I didn't know the full details of his losses, but he was clearly devastated. To add insult to injury, the temperatures were in the 90s and it was raining every day around 2 PM like clockwork. Not a gentle pitter patter rain, but pounding and pouring rain. Whatever wasn't ruined by the hurricane was slowly and steadily being ruined by the daily downpour and the unrepaired condition of this poor old man's home.

      Sitting with him for just a few moments, I could see that he was already deeply frustrated at the lack of support he was receiving. He was definitely suffering from the elements, but an anger was building up against his insurance company. They were not responsive, and so he asked me what to do. Before I could even answer, he said, Well, it is usually the squeaky wheel that gets the grease, so I'm gonna go ahead and keep calling and asking them to take care of my claim.

      I knew that this really didn't work because most adjusters have a full case load and they look at the work in the order that it’s received, not by priority and needs (including old, disabled, total losses, etc.). They also consider when the person can be contacted for an appointment. I could only give him the answer I had (and still give):

      Hey, if that doesn't work, you might want to contact a public adjuster. It is a possible 'win-win'. The more money they get you, the more money they make, plus they put pressure on the insurance company.

      A public adjuster would ask for 5-50% of the gross amount of the payment - depending on state, county or federal disaster declaration. I didn't get into the details with him of whether they'd come out yet with an adjuster, etc. I just let him know that this was an option.

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