METAMORPHOSIS: Building the Dome of a Home

This is ridiculous!!! We buy insurance as a safeguard. Supposedly, the insurance companies
work for us. Yeah, right. They have become like enemies. Our premiums are due on time or we
are dropped. Why don't the insurance companies have a designated time to pay or else be
required to pay exorbitant interest on the money they are withholding? After all, I am paying a
high interest rate on the money I have to borrow just to survive until the insurance companies pay
the claim. If they pay the claim….
And now, it is up to us to prove how and what affected our homes in a storm. Okay…. so we stay
and film the storm as proof or …. Or what? What exactly are our alternatives? This is beyond
belief: you have to prove whether it was wind or flood that took your house. It's no longer the
insurance companies' responsibility to determine this. So, the policyholder will have to have a
film or hire an engineer???
We need one insurance policy that covers our home. Period. This would eliminate the opposing
companies pointing the finger continuously at the other. This bickering makes money for the
insurance companies as our claims set in their accounts drawing interest. But, it bankrupts
families and businesses. Even if it is legal, it is morally wrong. Give us one company to deal
with. We are under enough stress without having to fight for what is owed to us. Hell, with the
stress this inflicts, they should be paying psychiatric care, too. We paid the premiums, insurance
companies should pay the claims in an expedient time frame.
And before you write about your tax dollars covering our damages, please realize that this is not
the case. It is a closed system ---only those who pay in are eligible to file claims. No one pays in
that isn't a policyholder. One-third of all people and businesses in the United States are located
in a flood zone. An average of 1000 people a day move to the United State's coasts. We need
viable building plans and community leadership as the population continues to expand into the
danger zones..
With each hurricane strike, the hurricane season seems longer and longer.
Each time we spend those six months repairing from the previous six months, the "off-season"
seems shorter and shorter. Inevitably, the off-season is filled with TV programs and magazine
articles about hurricanes past and what the future may hold. Sometimes, I watch them with
morbid fascination, other times it's too painful and I have to change the channel.
Evacuation and hurricane preparation are far different now for the residents in my area than when
I moved here 11 years ago. Gone is the complacency or illusion that it can't really be all that bad.
For days before the storm makes landfall, gasoline is difficult to find and water is a premium
commodity. Before Ivan, people prepared, but it was a more relaxed atmosphere. Now, it feels
like everyone assumes that any hurricane will be another Ivan. I know I do. Much more
trepidation is attached to the tropical storm season for me now than before 2004's Hurricane Ivan.
The post traumatic stress was evident on the faces of Ivan's survivors as we prepared for
Hurricanes Dennis and Katrina less than a year later. Overwhelming despair and resignation
resonated from the people I passed. Blank stares or streaming tears met my somber gaze.
The outcome could be different, better or worse, on a large scale or on a very local level. The
decisions made today decide which outcome prevails. If you are rebuilding, is it another
"temporary structure" that will need rebuilding after another hurricane? Or will you utilize stronger,
better building techniques? Domes aren't the only answer. There are elements we used in
building the Dome of a Home that can be incorporated into conventional structures. The foam we
used can be used to increase a conventional structure's roof line and walls. When used as
insulation between the walls, other benefits include its inability to absorb water and promote the
growth of mold and mildew and its superior energy efficiency. We are watching a superb
structure being built on Pensacola Beach by the Elks Lodge. It is all concrete – even the walls!
They are being put together like a 3-D puzzle.
54