Trying to cope

Jenny Goodrich’s memory of the storm that hit the Woodcliff area in late June is specific, but she doesn’t need that memory to remind her of the storm.

Repairs to the house she owns with her husband Eric near Woodcliff are far from complete.

"This is ridiculous," she said. "Our bedrooms were damaged in the storm. So we are sleeping in the dining room."

The Goodrichs estimate the damage to their house and property at nearly $70,000, including the bedrooms which are on the side of the house that got slammed hardest by the storm.

"We had to have emergency boards on the windows," she said. "That cost a stupid amount of money."

After their home was left damaged in the wake of the storm they had to start making some repairs right away.

"We had to do tree removal because it fell over on the fence. We had to do that ourselves. We had to rip out the carpeting that was wet to keep from getting mildew," she said.

Eric got help from family members to help rebuild their deck and to start building a new tree house to replace the

children’s play set that was destroyed by the storm.

"Most of that came out of our own pockets," she said. "We have had trouble with the insurance company and the bank. It took two weeks to get an insurance adjuster to the house. Once he got there he was fabulous. But it’s taking a really long time to get any money to help pay for this. Why do we pay for insurance when we can’t get what we need when we need it? We just got our first check cut 14 days ago, but it’s made out to Eric and I and the bank. We just got our first cut Monday.

"Anything we’ve done to this point has come out of our own pockets, and we’ve had to do a lot," she said.

As of last week, Goodrich estimated that they have spent about $6,000 to do necessary immediate and early repairs before getting any money from the insurance company.

"That’s a significant amount of money to take out of our savings, and we did minimal things," she said.

But now, she said, repairs are starting to take shape. Workers from Bluest Sky Roofing of Fremont finished repairs on their roof this week.

"The contractors are so busy right now because there is so much damage in the area," Goodrich said.

Next, four windows and a pair of doors will be replaced. She said those should be in sometime next week. Then the siding and carpeting can be replaced. The repairs could be finished by the end of September.

"This happened at the end of June," she said. "That will be three months before everything is back to normal."

But the repairs aren’t the only added expense to the family during this repair period.

"Our electric bills have doubled," she said. "We just got the bill for August, and it floored me. Our home isn’t sealed. We have the air on, but it’s not properly cooling the house. It’s costing us twice as much, but it’s not cooling the house like it should.

"We have bugs. There are too many access points that aren’t sealed for them. When it’s all said and done we’re going to have to have an exterminator out.

"These are two expenses that the insurance company doesn’t even look at."