Back in 2013, a devastating series of floods tore through many Boulder County, Colorado homes, destroying a staggering number of buildings and leaving a large number of residents homeless. One set of homeowners interviewed by ABC 7NEWS said in an interview that their home was located near a creek at the time, the waters of which rose to the point that their home actually fell into the waters.
"The creek was already, Wednesday night, higher than we had seen it," said one of the homeowners in an interview. "Probably about 2:00 we decided we should abandon the house."
Their house, like many others, was condemned because of the damages caused by the flood. And while they had flood insurance, their policy didn't provide for the full value of the house. On top of that, to get a disaster relief grant from the state government or FEMA, homeowners are required not to demolish their homes, leaving them with a condemned and deteriorated piece of property for years.
So far, 12 homeowners are close to the end of FEMA's appraisal process, and with it, hopefully close to receiving aid. "The process is very lengthy. It's bureaucratic. There's a lot of hoops to jump through and rightfully so," says Abby Shannon, the Long Rand Planning Manager for Boulder County. Before this flood happened, Shannon had never had to deal with disaster grants.
She's currently working with nearly sixty different people. "The folks who had their homes damaged," she says, "who are eligible for the buyouts will be eligible for the disaster price of their homes."
While rare, events like this do happen, and having a good flood insurance policy can help you get through what would be an otherwise crippling event. As you can see from this story, if you don't have proper protection, getting aid from authorities can be an absolutely excruciatingly slow process, leaving you with no other recourse as you wait for aid. In particular, this disaster stresses the need for a comprehensive flood insurance policy, as it's easy to sign up for a policy that doesn't provide for the full value of your home without even realizing it.
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