Busy, Busy, Busy!

Fair Warning!



Bridge near Baytown, TX


Serious winds near Winnie, TX


He huffed and puffed and blew my brick house down!


Just one of the remaining thousands of boats
that were blown up onto I -45 Freeway
north of the causeway to Galveston.


I've been very busy here in La Marque,Texas. Most of the jobs are pretty close together so my production is up. Damages are generally not too bad but there are a few bad ones. Yesterday, I was in an area called Omega Bay. This is a marina type development right on the bay. They really caught hell. The houses are built to resist high water conditions with all the main living areas up on the second floor. The lower floor is storage and garages / carports but some have been built out into living areas. Bad decision! This houses are up on pads, about 10 feet above water level. They had up to 4 feet of water is the lower floor rooms. Anything that was in them was gone or destroyed.
Today, Sunday, I'm backup in the main part of La Marque TX. Not much damage here, mostly trees down and roof damage and interior leaks. Ironically, I've seen several houses that have burnt down due to electrical fires caused by wind and falling trees hitting power lines.

Well, back to work. Its almost One PM and I have at least 5 more inspections to do today.

Later, Dana

Even better day

Had a great day today. Finally got my first paycheck deposited, two days late but it came in. Also got the rental car handled for another week and finished up the last of the inspections in the Harvey area, south of NO. Clean slate, ready to go to Baton Rouge tomorrow. Jumped on the phone and booked 8 inspections so I have a full day up there. Might be able to knock them all out in two days. May also get more in that area.

Found a great little Chinese joint a few blocks down from the hotel. Good food and a ton of it. One $10 order is enough for three meals and we have a microwave in the room so that works out well. I get tired of eating with a steering wheel in front of me all the time so a sit-down meal is nice now and then.

I'm finally getting the kinks worked out of this estimating program that FEMA uses called "Ace III" so things are moving much faster and I will be able to do a lot more inspections in less time. Volume is the name of the game here. At $50 per inspection you can make some decent money in a day if you move quickly and work efficiently. I use Microsoft's Streets and Trips which links to the Ace III program and imports a data base of all the addresses of the jobs I've been assigned and plots them on a map of the area for me. I can then look at the locations and make decisions about routing and such and make he best use of my time. When I book the appointment with the applicants, I can ask them a few questions about the type and extent of damage that they are claiming and that gives me an idea of the time it will take to do the inspection. It's all coming together nicely.

The talk among the inspectors here is whether we will be going to Texas after this. Looks like south Texas got their ass handed to them pretty badly and will be needing a lot of help. This could become a career of sorts. There are those that work it like one and use the time in between for personal projects. It is totally doable if you know what you are doing. A six figure income is not out of reach. The down side is that you are away from home for long stretches. It's not like you can stop and take a vacation when you want. You do not control how much FEMA sends down to you. And when you are assigned an inspection, you have 72 hours to turn it around. There are bonuses to be had if you are fast and accurate, as well as penalties for delays or mistakes. All it's a good and challenging game. Keeps you on your toes for sure.
Let the games begin!
Dana