Parents' Home Badly Damaged by Tornado

On Sept 1st 2021 my family’s life changed forever. The home that my mom and dad worked so hard to provide for my sister and me was demolished in less than one minute by a hurricane and freak tornado. Hurricane Ida caused a tornado to hit our neighborhood. Our house and the property we grew up loving was devastated. The acre and a half of beautiful trees and wildlife are gone. Our childhood memories sent out into the night with the wind and pouring rain. The furniture, floors, walls, ceilings, pictures, paintings, clothing, etc. were all destroyed by wind, rain and debris.

My parents worked hard all their lives to give my sister and me a good life. Just when they were ready to retire everything was taken from them. Our home of 26 years, the property, and all our belongings and memories were gone in an instant. My dad has continued to work but Mom’s office and treatment room (she’s a pediatric occupational therapist) were in the house, so there’s no income for her.

On top of all this, after 6 months of searching, they finally found a contractor to do the work for what the insurance would give them, and he absconded with $71,000. Besides losing that money, they now have huge attorney fees to try and get it back!

Now the insurance company is fighting to not compensate my parents for all the years of on-time premium payments. Although their policy technically covers them for all their losses, Farmers insurance is fighting them for every penny. They don’t have enough to rebuild their house. The beautiful wooded lot that they lost is completely uncovered by insurance, yet it will cost at least $50,000 to clear the remaining debris, and that doesn’t even cover replanting. Our family has put in hours and hours of work with the help of volunteers, friends and relatives, but there is so much more to be done. They hired tree experts to remove the few remaining trees and partial trees that were endangering neighbors and anyone who came onto our property. They hired someone to ground out 30-35 stumps from huge trees ripped out of the ground causing hazardous conditions. They’ve purchased and we’ve planted 28 shrubs and trees as well as numerous small plants. They have spent thousands and thousands of their own money to do what they could on the property and to pay attorney fees, and are unable to continue to pay out of their pockets.

I waited until now to post this because my parents didn’t want to impose on people and were hopeful that insurance would cover their replacement and cleanup costs.

Unfortunately, that is not the case. My mom and dad are in need of $175,000 above and beyond what insurance will pay to be able to remove the house and tree debris from the property, rebuild their home and hopefully, pay attorney fees. I hope you can help them. Thank you all.