My family and I evacuated during Superstorm Sandy, just a few years ago. When we took the drive back into our town, the street was littered with boats. Huge sailboats that were tossed by the water and landed in stores and all along the roads. The destruction was surreal.
As we came to our house, we were floored at the power of mother nature. While we were fortunate that no one we knew got hurt, we had a lot of pain to deal with in terms of the memories and material things we lost.
During the recovery phase of natural disasters, it’s easy to get caught up in the hurry…the need to act quickly to save or restore your house. In that moment, however, I beg of you to take the time to do your homework on the contractor who you choose to rebuild your home.
Don’t make the same mistake we made.
Contractors from all over the United States flew into our town just days after we saw our house destroyed. One contractor had people up and down the block signing up with him to rebuild their homes. I too signed up – thinking he must be good if others are signing up with him.
Long story short, a few weeks into rebuilding our house, the contractor was nowhere to be found and had about $2,500 of my money.
One day as I’m walking into my house, a women ran up to me hysterically crying and said “Have you seen George? He took twenty thousand dollars and I haven’t heard from him in 2 months.”
George and many other ‘contractors’ scammed hundreds of people…preying on them during their time of need.
If you recently suffered damage from Hurricane Mathew or any other natural disaster for that matter, please doo NOT make the same mistake; do your homework and know who you are working with. Make sure they are reputable, well known, and stand behind their work. The last thing you need is to lose something else during such a tragic time.
Leave a Reply