When what you don't know will hurt you

Want to bet nobody knows if there's insurance?

My family had to move a couple of years ago because the local school system needed our Main Street property for expansion. It was OK; it wasn't the family homestead for 200 years, just a nice old house we bought and fixed up because it was, d'oh, close to the schools. It was time to go anyway.
The "new" house outside town we ended up buying was a 1980s split level with an interior-access-only basement. It had a sump pump in the corner, we were on the side of a steep, wooded hillside, and while there was no watermark showing, it was pretty clear there'd been issues with water. All fixed, we were assured. And, after all, it was a relatively small splatted bug on the windshield of our journey through life, so we bought the house, finished off the basement with due regard for the likelihood of some kind of incident, and a year later got a tropical storm that sent eight inches of rain down the hill.
And into our basement.  Hydraulic pressure is a powerful thing to watch in action. Hairline cracks in the 5,000-psi concrete floor about one-sixty-fourth of an inch wide, less than a human hair, were oozing water. Still, the sump pump was keeping up. We went to bed figuring it would be OK. The finished walls were built to deal with dampness and water in ways even Mike Holmes (Holmes on Homes) would have applauded, so an inch or two was no big deal.
Two things happened: The wire to the sump pump shorted out when the water reached a certain height. And it reached that height because power to the entire area was lost. Water was pouring up into the basement from the sump pump well.  It went hip deep in the three hours sleep we got that night.
We're covered, we thought: We had a sump pump endorsement on our homeowner's insurance policy. So we called up the agent and he sent out an adjuster and a few days later we got a densely worded three-page explanation in insurance adjuster bafflegab on why we weren't, even though we had a sump pump endorsement, getting any money from them.
That was somewhere beyond annoying. That's something that sticks with you for far too long, like the taste of a bad crab cake.  And that's why, when an opportunity to become a part of the public insurance adjustment industry came up, I was delighted to put on my knapsack, pick up my sword and my clipboard, and join the army.
Public insurance adjusting is simple.
Educate the homeowner on their individual insurance policy and what it covers and doesn't cover? Check. I'm there. I've taken courses, I've got a state license, I now know what I should have known a couple of years ago when my sump pump stopped working (I should have gotten something out of that, by the way, and if I'd known more, maybe I would have.)
Protect the homeowner? Oh, yes, fix bayonets, click ballpoints, and sound the rally, homeowners with insurance issues need protection. I'm proof of that. I lived through what I'm now trying to help others avoid.
Make some money? I can live with that, especially under the circumstances I operate within: If I don't get the job done for the homeowner, I don't get a dime. And when I do get my dime, it comes out of the insurance company. I get a warm shiver just writing that.

Bill Watson

I never knew all this was out there.  If I had, I'd have jumped ship away from journalism 30 years ago, when it was clear all we'd ever do in newspapers was make money by writing about people's tragedies and misfortunes and mistakes. This is more like my 17 years as a volunteer firefighter: The firefighter's reason for getting out of bed (at 3 a.m.) is to go save someone's property. The big difference is that as a part of the public insurance adjustment industry, I get paid.
"OK," you're saying, "Nice story, but what's it got to do with me?"  Three quick questions and you'll know if it has anything at all to do with you.
1. Are you a property owner? If you answer yes, next question:
2. Have you EVER read your copy of the homeowner insurance policy you get in the mail every year? Do you even know where it is? Quick: What's your deductible?
3. Do you really know if you are entitled to money if your roof leaks, your sump pump dies, your Christmas turkey burns up in the oven or your neighbor's tree falls on your garage?
If you don't like the answers (or absence of answers) you just came up with, a public insurance consultant WILL change your answers for the better. I'm available, and it's usually better to talk while nothing is going on than it is after you're awakened by a tree coming through the roof.   I'm in northeast Pennsylvania, easily reached.
If you're not in northeast Pennsylvania, contact the bigger company with which I'm affiliated, Metro Public Adjusting, to find a claims rep near you.
You paid for insurance coverage. Why not make sure you get what you paid for and take the stress out of dealing with claims while you're at it?

More pictures of Irene damage courtesy of USA Today.