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=> Testimonies / Prayer Requests / Fellowship => Topic started by: winner08 on August 30, 2008, 02:10:49 AM
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Good evening everybody. Today is the third anniversery of hurricane Katrina. Three yrs. ago New Orleans was hit by what has became the worst national disaster is American history. Unfortunately I was part of this history. Us along with many others loss everything and I do mean everything. We did manage to save the most important thing, our lives and the lives of my family. However many did lose family members. Now on this third yr. anniversery we lay in harms way. Hurricane Gustev is making a b-line for New Orleans. We stand in the way of devastion once again. Soon we will be remembering hurricane Rita. Rita was right after Katrina and layed total destruction on the lower parts of Louisiana. So please pray for those who loss everything due to katrina and Rita, and now we need everyones prayers for hurricane Gustve. On a personal note I believe this is the beginnings of the labour pains the Lord has told us about in the last days. Just look at the weather map one hurricane after another. Right now there's three hurricanes over water and we know one is heading straight for us(Louisiana). We will have to take a wait and see position on the others. I have a feeling this will be a tough yr. for hurricanes. I will pray for all living in coastal states.
Thanks for your prayers,
Darren
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Darren,
I will keep all this in prayer!
Thank you keeping us in remembrance of this.
Brenda
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Hey Darren,
I will definately pray for you, your family and all the locals in harms way.
Steve
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I won't claim to know what God's reasoning is for these natural disasters however, I know that it makes me grateful for not being directly effected by these events. What I can't figure out is why the same place over and over again? I understand it's the way of nature but what are people to do, not inhabit these regions of the earth? It's just very disheartening. Sometimes I wish God would make his plans clearer.
I will certainly have the whole state of Louisiana in my prayers.
Eileen
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:( :( Darren,
You and your family will be in prayers along with the whole city of New Orleans.
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PRAY FOR US!!!
Darren
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Darren,
Are you evacuating, and do you have a place to go?
I live in FL and have been getting hit with some of the effects.
Brenda
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No Brenda we are not evac. We're on the height side of Slidell and we are predicting getting hit by the T.S. winds. 50-100 mph. So God willing we will be OK. If it was a cat. 5 yes we would have no choice. After what we went through Katrina 24hrs on the road falling asleep at the wheel 3dogs 4kids. Just to drive to Tenn. which is a 6 hr. drive. No way. I'm 3 yrs older and have 5 dogs instead of 3 and 4kids and other family members. One truck and no money. Needless to say I'm scared for my family but there's nothing I can do. I stocked up on provisions and hope for the best. If the house bl owes away and we do have to make a run for our life then we jump in the truck. We have a full tank of gas and head north or ma by come see you in FLA. check out Mickey and the guys. :D Anyway Now I have the sons girlfriends and their family coming to stay with us. If I die I'll have lots of company. :D Now I just heard that the hurricane is moving to the west a little at the time. This is great news for us. we might just get hit with the outside bands. As far as the stormsurge goes like I said we live on the higher ground of Slidell. For Katrina we lived in the lower part of Slidell and well you know what Katrina did. WE lost everything. I think it is more stressfull in waiting for the hurricane than the hurricane itself. MAN speaking about stressing out. Anyways thanks for you and the rest of y'all prayers. See you on the flip side.
Darren
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Thank you for asking for our support Darren. My prayers are w/ you and your family. I am glad you are using your sense of humor to get you thru!
Eileen I can't help feeling those thoughts as well! My son lives in Tampa and he is already watching for Hurricane Hannah!
I live in Michigan and we always have to watch out for tornadoes and I even felt the windows shake in my house from an earthquake!
It doesn't matter where we live if we "live in the shelter of the Most High" Ps 91
Darren, read all of Psalm 91 (you probably already know it), memorize it, believe it and trust God!! God Bless you!
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Thanks gmik, no matter where one lives we are in danger from mother nature. Hurricanes in the south east, tarnados in the heartland and earthquake in-the west and snow storm and ice storms in the north. So it doesn't matter where you live. I tell you amazed me in the aftermath of Katrina I was reading on line here people were blaming us for living in a soup bowl(*New Orleans) That it was our fault. Man That got my blood pressure up. Now those same people will be blaming us for rebuilding the city and making our homes here once again. If the same kind of distaster happens with Gustav. I must give credit to our leaders both local and Federal level. They really did a great job in preparing for this hurricane. Evac went more smoothly the hospitals and nursing homes got their patients out and if you remember many died strap to their bed in nursing home doing Katrina. The Lord worked in mystries ways. The Lord making sure the lost of life in at its least. One last thing the weather service had put Gustav at a cat.4 yesterday evening. Now when Gustav hits land theysay it will be a Cat. 2 With 115mph it is not as bad so we are looking better than yesterday. But then again Katrina was a cat 2-beginning 3 when it hit New Orleans, so it really just all a matter of how muchstorm surge is pushed in following the storm. We will be on the east side of the storm so this is the wet and windy side. We've done everything possible now we just have to wait it out.
Thanks,Darren
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Darren,
So happy to see you post. I've been wondering if you where in one of those cars that they show on the news pouring out of your area. We've had some wicked bands of weather here. I think the whole country is praying and thinking about everyone there. Did you say You lost everything in Hurricaine Katrina?
Well at least it's 5 Dogs you have, [not sure as being a mouse] how Mickie would feel about 5 cats coming for a visit. I do have some room here, but it would be awefully cozy cramped! ;D Sounds like you are truly blessed with a big family! Wow four kids.
We will keep praying & watching the news, please keep posting as you can, so we know you are safe!
God Keep You Safe,
Brenda
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Hi Brenda,
So if you are getting bands you must be in Florida?
Here on the Miss coast (east side) things are not bad yet, but it looks like it is going to change real quick. It is these tornado warnings that are the biggest concern. But just dreading the electric going out in this heat, as it always does.
But I'm praying for you and your family near New Orleans Darren. You seem like you have done the best you can.
You know Gustav is going over a lots of oil rigs out in the gulf right now :( As soon as this hurricane started heading this way our gas prices jumped up 20 cents a gal., now it is sure to keep raising.
mercy, peace and love
Kat
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Hi Brenda,
So if you are getting bands you must be in Florida?
Here on the Miss coast (east side) things are not bad yet, but it looks like it is going to change real quick. It is these tornado warnings that are the biggest concern. But just dreading the electric going out in this heat, as it always does.
But I'm praying for you and your family near New Orleans Darren. You seem like you have done the best you can.
You know Gustav is going over a lots of oil rigs out in the gulf right now :( As soon as this hurricane started heading this way our gas prices jumped up 20 cents a gal., now it is sure to keep raising.
mercy, peace and love
Kat
Yes Kat....I live in SW Florida on the Gulf coast about 30 min from the beach. It's been beautiful so far this morning, yesterday was pretty hairy at times! We lost our electricity for 11 days after Hurricane Charlie, it's very unpleasant in the heat! :P
You may be in for a tense day, may God Bless & Keep you all safe also! :)
Brenda
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Brenda,
I'm curious, do you folks buy storm insurance to protect yourself in case of property loss?
Does anyone in Florida build houses with storm cellars or reinforced rooms in them?
It seems to me that casualty insurance should be the responsibility of the occupant of a home and that folks should plan for these extreme natural events, especially when they occur regularly.
I would be interested in the feeling of the forum membership.
Indiana Bob
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Hi Bob,
Anyone with a mortgage must have home/property insurance, the deductables can be just high enough to make any minor damage an out of pocket expense. As a senior manager in a residential construction company here in the Tampa Bay area we get many, many requests to cover things that are outside the warranty (named storms are not covered by the builder). State law mandates that insurance companies pay for damages due to hurricanes, tropical storms, etc. but when the damage is relatively minor there are some who through either a lack of funds or a lack of willingness to part with their own money come gunning for the builder to pay.
As far as cellars go that is a rare bird in these parts, you might hit a water table just 8 or 10 feet below the surface ground level, we are floating on water here! What many folks do is buy a back up generator to power the house in case of outages. A full power generator (whole house) can be quite expensive but for about $500.00 you can buy one that will keep the lights on and the refrigerator running, no A/C though.
I have a little building in the back of my property (right by the river) that has a/c, a mini fridge, microwave, tv, etc. that my generator can power up, so that is our emergency shelter in case of power outages, some folks have the same kind of set up in the garage.
Back in 2004 when I was building my house we had 3 hurricanes pass through Tampa, the house came through with flying colors, no damages whatsoever. As a matter of fact since the new Florida building codes went into effect in 2002 not one roof has blown off of any house in Florida built after 2002, recently the codes became even tighter making the houses here even more resistant to high wind and rain damage.
Many insurance companies have totally withdrawn from Florida due to not only the frequency of Tropical Storms but also by specious claims and outright fraud on the part of home owners and ethically challenged contractors, we can only hope for this cycle to be done with soon so everyone can catch their collective breath, my first 25 years in Florida were relatively calm, I have come to find out that these weather cycles seem to be in 20 year cycles so I guess we were overdue for some bad times.
Peace,
Joe
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Hi IndianaBob,
Right now in my life I'm kind of sour on Insurance. Unfortunately when you have a mortgage you are required by law to have these things. The home insurance company I have had for 10 years has decided not to renew in November. If I do the math, since we never put a claim in, we flushed about $30k in their pockets. If we put that money in a savings account, we could pay for damages ourselves.
I think insurance is fleecing this country. People are trusting in them and Government to bail them out of everything. I would like to go back to trusting in God first, then to secure savings & living within my means. I would welcome the ability to not have insurance, but our laws force us to!
I want to owe no man.....!
Brenda
Disaster's can happen anywhere, like Darren said:
Thanks gmik, no matter where one lives we are in danger from mother nature. Hurricanes in the south east, tarnados in the heartland and earthquake in-the west and snow storm and ice storms in the north. So it doesn't matter where you live. I tell you amazed me in the aftermath of Katrina I was reading on line here people were blaming us for living in a soup bowl(*New Orleans) That it was our fault.
I understand Darren being upset...I think it's a bit cold hearted to blame the victims, when they are required to pay for a policy, and then they get thrown under the bus to find themselves in need.
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All one has to do is read an Almanac and you can surmise that God has been making mankind have serious labor pains for a long time. History is one long complicated pregnancy I say.
May all be at peace during any storm we must endure.
Jeff
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At the coffee shop yesterday morning, one of the men told a story of a brother packing up and going to their sisters house in Baton Rouge. The house in New Orleans was spared, the house in Baton Rouge was damaged by a tree falling on it.
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Hi Patrick,
The exact same thing happened to us back in '04 when Hurricane Charley (I love how they give these ol' bud names to these storms!) was predicted to make a direct hit on Tampa, my brother and sister in law invited us to stay with them in Orlando. We decided to stay put as our house (as noted in a previous post in this thread) was built to even exceed the new building codes. I was confident we could withstand 150 mph winds.
About 2-3 hours before good ol' boy Charley was to hit Tampa it made an abrupt turn east and hit Port Charlotte directly moving its way Northeast to impact Orlando severely, felling a large oak tree on my brother and sister in law's house! Ironically as they were suffering the full fury of the storm we were grilling Italian sausage and basking in the sun, Tampa received a little wind, a couple showers and then the sun came out about 3 pm.
You never know for sure what is going to happen with these things until it actually happens. ;)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Charley
Peace,
Joe
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hey everybody, I'm at my aunt's house today. She lives in Kenner a suberb of new orleans. As I was writing yall mon. the electric went out. It has been out ever since. We had no damage. It's been very hot down here. Man no a.c. it's bad. Anyway today is the first day my wife and I were able to take a shower and sit and watch t.v.in the A.C. Oh my dogs are very happy to be out of that heat. I heard the electric should be on tomorrow. Let pray. Thanks for all your concerns and prayers.
Darren
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So Glad to hear from you Darren!
;D ;D ;D ;D
Brenda
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Hi Brenda,
There is more than one way to think of casualty insurance.
Up here in Northern Indiana we have Amish communities that may choose to self-insure to some extent.
When an Amish home is damaged by fire or wind the local community gathers to rebuild it. Some members provide the materials, others provide lots of good food and about a hundred men, women and children provide the labor to raise up a new home in about a week. I think that that is the kind of insurance that God respects.
On the other hand there is commercial insurance which I will explain briefly for my own home.
We have a 100 year old house of about 3000 square feet, partly two story with a ten year old three car garage, located in a small town with a volunteer fire department. We presently have $230,000.00 in coverage on the dwelling and it covers everything except flood which would be extra. (we are 700 ft above sea level) The policy would pay an additional $115,000.00 for personal property or contents and an additional $46,000.00 for the garage and $100,000.00 personal liability in case of a law suit. Our annual premium is $753.00 or about $7,530.00 for ten years.
Like you we have not had any damage or reported any claims, but of course the Insurance Company has paid claims for other people they insure. So, the premiums we paid in have been used to pay claims, to pay the insurance agent 15% and to manage the company. These expenses are on public record and any citizen may examine the company's books in the office of the Indiana Insurance Commissioner.
As far as the bank is concerned; the bank has on deposit funds of our neighbors that are loaned out to us and others with the home or other property held to guarantee the repayment of the loan. If there were no insurance and the house burned down we could not repay the loan. Even if we saved the premiums at 3% interest for the ten years we would have only about $10,000.00 to try to rebuild a $230,000.00 house and we would still owe the loan amount, so that wouldn't work out very well.
Insurance companies certainly do make a good living for their stock holders and agents, but they usually spend 70% of the premiums each year on legitimate claims, so we just need to be careful which company we select to provide the protection.
If you have been paying $3,000.00 per year on house insurance then I suppose you have a very expensive home or an unusually high risk factor or you need to shop around for a better deal on insurance.
Let me know if you have any comments or questions.
Bob
Hi IndianaBob,
Right now in my life I'm kind of sour on Insurance. Unfortunately when you have a mortgage you are required by law to have these things. The home insurance company I have had for 10 years has decided not to renew in November. If I do the math, since we never put a claim in, we flushed about $30k in their pockets. If we put that money in a savings account, we could pay for damages ourselves.
I think insurance is fleecing this country. People are trusting in them and Government to bail them out of everything. I would like to go back to trusting in God first, then to secure savings & living within my means. I would welcome the ability to not have insurance, but our laws force us to!
I want to owe no man.....!
Brenda
Disaster's can happen anywhere, like Darren said:
Thanks gmik, no matter where one lives we are in danger from mother nature. Hurricanes in the south east, tarnados in the heartland and earthquake in-the west and snow storm and ice storms in the north. So it doesn't matter where you live. I tell you amazed me in the aftermath of Katrina I was reading on line here people were blaming us for living in a soup bowl(*New Orleans) That it was our fault.
I understand Darren being upset...I think it's a bit cold hearted to blame the victims, when they are required to pay for a policy, and then they get thrown under the bus to find themselves in need.
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Hi Bob,
Are you in insurance ;D
When I speak of being being sour on insurance, I'm also speaking Ideally what I would like to have been able to do. I'm certainly not preaching to anyone. I have no doubt it has been a blessing to many.
Ideally, I would much rather conduct myself much the same as the Amish. But this wisdom has only hit me recently. It would have been ideal to have been able to purchase a house for cash, and bank money spent for insurance. Would I have saved that money 10 years ago, certainly not.
IOur cost of insurance here is reflective of it being in an area prone to hurricanes. I believe that accounts for yours being $753.00 and mine $3,000.00 a year. No Basement, built on Slab, one Floor, a few steps on either side and your in your neighbors property.
I think Joe answer well about how the insurance works down here and the building codes. When Hurricane Charlie hit I think it was a Cat 3 and Thanks to God all we lost was a few trees. My husband and I are thinking of moving eventually hows the weather in your part of the woods?
;D ;)
Brenda
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Hello I am back in my house with power!! :D :D Like Ray says thank God for everything even the smallest of things as in, electric and water (in door plumbing). my bed and pillow, AC and all the other things I take for granted. OH, my computer so I can talk to you good people. I notice you guys are talking about insurance. We had one hell of a time trying to get our money from those guys after Katrina. Many of us paid many yrs into our policies yet when time came to pay up many gave us (my people down here). a hard time. Anyways, I am glade to be in my home with AC and once again participating in good conversation.
Darren