So, insurance, with their crafty wording that would put William Shakespeare to shame, rather swiftly denied our claim for the damage in the basement.
Next step, now that President Obama has declared our county one of the federal disaster areas as a result of Irene’s path of destruction, was to call FEMA.
Real Man filled out the required paperwork online and was contacted to say they’d be by “sometime.”
Imagine our surprise when the doorbell rang today with a FEMA inspector.
I answered the door, and there he stood.
Real Man needed to get some paperwork for him, so the FEMA guy and I chatted for a few minutes.
This guy is from Florida, and has been assigned to NJ. He’s been up here since the hurricane and is working 7 days a week, about 18 hours a day, going to houses, inspecting and taking photos of the damage and sending them on to the people who either accept or deny the claims.
He’s exhausted, he misses his family, he’s been through his own hardships with hurricanes and tropical storms.
He certainly had the right to be grumpy, short-tempered, attitude-y, and unfriendly.
He was, quite simply, delightful.
FEMA should be proud of this guy as their representative.
I can imagine that for people who lost everything, this man would be an incredible comfort, and that is the kind of representative that SHOULD be working for this organization.
So, kudos to FEMA for swift attention and for hiring such a man as the one who showed up at our door.
For some people, I can see that he would have been absolutely what they needed at this time of their lives.
