Hail the sizze of...

[Aphos]

Well, lived through the worst hail storm I've ever been in this morning.  And being in Oklahoma, that is saying something.  I have SEEN the aftermath of a worse storm, but wasn't there when it happened.

Lots of hail the size of golf balls, and some much larger.  My car is all dented up and my new garage door has some dings.  Plus the back window of my car was shattered and the windshield cracked.

Not a good day.

[Sibling Chatty]

Climate changes?

We don' got no steenkin' climate changes...

Hail that size USED to be a March/April issue in Oklahoma and Texas, not a May/June one.

Your local insurance agent's gonna be busy. (OTOH, this is the time to buy a 'hail-dented' car off a dealer's lot at a really cheap price. Take 3 grand off for hail dimples, and a new car doesn't look quite so expensive.)

I'm so sorry your car got dinged. It's really annoying to have to deal with that whole "is it gonna leak" issue on the replacement glass, too.

Maybe one of these might help...

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

BTW, do you have legislation regarding front/back glasses in OK? I had my front one cracked about a year ago in the parking lot of my condo and the insurance paid for the replacement no questions or copay asked.

Apparently not all laws in FL are nonsense...

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

BTW, do you have legislation regarding front/back glasses in OK? I had my front one cracked about a year ago in the parking lot of my condo and the insurance paid for the replacement no questions or copay asked.

Apparently not all laws in FL are nonsense...

So far as I know, there are NO regulations of insurance exploitation businesses companies in OK.   If such regulations actually exist, they are often ignored by companies.  The situation is pretty much geared so that the insurance companies rake in obcene profits at the expense of their "customers", but as soon as any single customer actually needs the utilize the insurance-- the company is free to drop said customer like a hot potato.  If the number of customers exceeds a certain amount, the company is free to just pick-up and leave.  This has happened a coupla times, now.  In tornado aftermaths, more than one company packed up and left, leaving many customers holding the bag, their issues unresolved.  "Let'em sue us across state lines, if they are able" seems to have been the operating word.   Most folk won't pursue that avenue, as it is most $$.   And the companies know it.

In the voice of Yosemete Sam:  "Ahh Hates Them Insurance Companies.  Ahh really do"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eo0OY8GOuc

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Isn't self-regulation beautiful?
 

[pieces o nine]

In the voice of Yosemete Sam:  "Ahh Hates Them Insurance Companies.  Ahh really do"

After I graduated from college, I came home for a month before heading off to my first real job. Of course, multiple tornadoes smote the city while I was here.   

We were the only people in 3 square blocks that had 4 exterior walls and a roof. The roof was 'on' although we had heard it being lifted, nail-by-screeching-roofers-nail, as one very slow moving tornado passed overhead.

Dad's insurance agent eventually showed up, climbed on the roof, averted his eyes from the surrounding wreckage, and pronounced our house structurally sound. Dad said he came "vewwy vewwy cwose"* to throwing the agent off the roof and then pronouncing *him* structurally sound.

Some insurance agents make the mob look downright kind, don't they?


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
* in the words of Elmer Fudd...

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

In the voice of Yosemete Sam:  "Ahh Hates Them Insurance Companies.  Ahh really do"

After I graduated from college, I came home for a month before heading off to my first real job. Of course, multiple tornadoes smote the city while I was here.   

We were the only people in 3 square blocks that had 4 exterior walls and a roof. The roof was 'on' although we had heard it being lifted, nail-by-screeching-roofers-nail, as one very slow moving tornado passed overhead.

Dad's insurance agent eventually showed up, climbed on the roof, averted his eyes from the surrounding wreckage, and pronounced our house structurally sound. Dad said he came "vewwy vewwy cwose"* to throwing the agent off the roof and then pronouncing *him* structurally sound.

Some insurance agents make the mob look downright kind, don't they?


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
* in the words of Elmer Fudd...

Let me guess....your parents had to threaten to go to court, before they got an adequate settlement?

And then, they were immediately dropped by the company?

It's basically what happened to my folks-- not a tornado or anything like that, but they had "replacement" insurance (at a premium) and the bathroom drain failed, and a serious (but slow) leak developed over several months.

It took that long for them to realize what had happened-- but it was too late for the piano and carpet.

They actually had to file in court, before an "agent" offered to try to make amends.   Piano was ruined, according to 3 different specialists-at-musical instrument repair.  The insurance company sent ONE guy, who had "occasionally" repaired guitars... !

I had taken extreme close-up pictures showing the extent of the damage....when I brought them out for the agent.... he kinda swallowed funny.   I had several dozen pics. 

They capitulated completely.  But, my parents had to actually FILE in court first.

And yes, they dropped my parents afterwards.... (or tried too-- my parents had already switched, and canceled FIRST.... so there.)

[pieces o nine]

Woah! Your parents definitely had worse carriers/agents!

I don't think mine were dropped from coverage (the city-wide damage was extensive and much of the city would have been dropped -- I think it would have become part of the news story as well!). I remember them preparing the itemized report for damaged/destroyed items, and I never heard complaints about a replacement check or coverage thereafter. Maybe NE has better laws to protect against insurance 'fraud'?

As a humorous footnote, there have been regular fierce storm warnings since I've been here, with tornado watches & warnings attached to them. Last week we were missed by the tornadoes that did extensive damage to two nearby cities.

My college friend is trying to resolve a grievance she filed so she can come and stay for a visit. She called a couple days after the tornadoes to check in; I answered with a 'weepy' voice and said, "V--I'm ... I'm ... all right." She replied, laughing, "So? Why wouldn't you be?"


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
This was a replay of the call I made to her after the post-college tornadoes. When they *finally* lifted the quarantine on our neighborhood (supposedly imposed to keep looters and sight-seers out until downed power lines were removed from roads and houses and such) I called her from a pay phone with that message, breaking into the tears I had not yet shed. She replied as above, because she *had not heard about* the storm, the devastation, or the deaths.

This time was better -- no loss of water or electricity. No twice-per-week visits to my dad's office to use the (hot!) showers and luxuriate in a *whole roomful* of gleaming, clean, actual flush toilets. No typing resume cover letters at night by flashlight, a la Abraham Lincoln. 

No Red Cross vehicles allowed into 'quarantined' neighborhoods each day to bring fresh water and baloney sandwiches to people helping neighbors schlep wrecked belongings from still-flooded basements. No cars full of 'gawking' sightseers, occasionally stopping at a curb to allow a passenger to leap out and snatch something from a pile of wreckage -- *right in front of* -- the still-stunned homeowners.

No dismantling remains of outbuildings, or nailing plywood over broken windows or actual honking holes in houses, or helping shore up a neighbor's interior wall or floor until a proper assessment and repair could be made.

No seeing those with chainsaws cutting away downed trees and other structural debris all around the area. No utilities and phone crews working their butts off to restore services. No ...interesting... political messages spray-painted on terribly damaged houses with 'activity suggestions' for the politicians flying overheard in helicopters...

I feel for those affected by the Kearney-Aurora storm, not to mention all the others, everywhere else...   Nature is awesome, and it's humbling to be reminded that she doesn't give a crap about the so-called "Pinnacle of Creation"!

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Question for our tornado alley siblings: is there any construction code in the states involved? Living in South FL where the code isn't as strict as I would like it to be I am still surprised every year with the destruction of tornadoes. Is it just 'too costly' for developers for a code forcing wind/debris resistant houses?
/

[Sibling Chatty]

Here's a good general article.
http://www.daytondailynews.com/weather/content/project/tornado/daily/0401buildings.html

Yes, there are codes. No, at 300+ MPH, it would be prohibitive to build a house to withstand that...

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

There ARE codes.

Most times' though, they are ignored.  Or the "inspector" is paid off. 

We are the Land Of Corrupt Corporation Commissioners, after all.... we even made it into a Doonsbury cartoon series.

And, Chatty's right-- 180 mile-an-hour winds at best.

[Sibling Lambicus the Toluous]

Dad's insurance agent eventually showed up, climbed on the roof, averted his eyes from the surrounding wreckage, and pronounced our house structurally sound. Dad said he came "vewwy vewwy cwose"* to throwing the agent off the roof and then pronouncing *him* structurally sound.

Around here, if the engineering or architecture regulatory bodies heard about an insurance agent making pronouncements on the state of a building's structure, I'm sure that one or the other would want to have a word with him about practicing without a licence.