[lmbarnes0]

Ivan hit us hard in the pittsburgh area and we lost everything, four vehicles, our silver wilng, reflex and my burg400, they were totally submerged. It looked like our house was in the middle of a river. Check out the sites Flood Photos. This is our neighborhood, and our house.

 

[wasions]

I'd heard that Ohio got hit hard on TV, but hadn't heard anything about Pitts. Very sad. Our prayers are with you and your family. Still, if no one was hurt, we can be thankful for that. Recover well.

Oh, I couldn't get the link to work.

 

[billmeek]

Link is now fixed.

Lisa,

I hope you and yours are all safe and unharmed. I know very well what it like to have almost everything you own destroyed. I do hope you're well insured. Things (houses, cars, etc) can always be replaced. It's the little things (family photos, home movies, etc) that you might be able to recover that make the diffrence in the long run.

 

[NormanB]

Thats really terrible Lisa - but at least you are all safe.

Obviously the pictures are of when conditions subsided, but how come the vehicles were totally submerged? - is you garage lower than the house? - and is the collapsed stucture the garage?

I do hope you home insurance kicks in and looks after you and the clean up and dry out process goes OK.

Thanks for taking the trouble to post the pics in what must be a most distressing time.

 

[Doctor K]

Sorry to hear about you and Jeff. Are you both and your children alright? We were fortunate to be at the top of the hill but Etna and Millvale at the bottom of our hills are wiped out as well. We have been watching various friends' children since Friday night when it happened as their parents help family. Did you have flood insurance? Apparently, many home insurance policies do not cover "acts of God." School is not going to start again until Thursday because the roads are not yet passable there. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

 

[pauljo]

Very sorry to heard of your losses, Lisa. I was affected by a flood only once - that was enough. The docile little creek at the back boundary of my property turned into a raging monster that flooded the first floor of the house we were living in and caved in the street in front of the house. Fortunately, we evacuated in time - but the clean up and repairs went on for weeks.

I wish you the best in recovering from this setback.

 

[lmbarnes0]

Thankfully we are all well, just living all over the place in different houses. The white structure that collapsed was Jeff's Aunt's garages. Our house was a multi-level dwelling where the basement is in the ground about half way, the four older kids rooms were there, the next level up is where our entry and garage were, the next level up was our living room, dining room, kitchen, mstr bedroom and our youngest sons room. The water was about a foot into that third level and our house was sitting in the middle of what looked like white water rapids. The back door in the basement was a steel door and buckled and water came flooding into the kids rooms. We just ran around getting the kids pets up to drier ground.

We are in the process of finding a place to live and looks like our youngest sons school and the associated church are finding us a place where we can all live.

 

[NormanB]

I hope Jeff and Lisa do not mind but I found this on the Burgman Yahoo group and post it here so you can all see the extent of the problem Jeff and Lisa are tackling.

From: "showannouncer" <[email protected]>
Date: Thu Sep 23, 2004 5:30 am
Subject: Fwd: Jeff and Lisa's Dilemma

Hello Group members,

You may have noticed Jeff in Pittsburgh has not posted recently.
He and Lisa have been going through a difficult time as he shared
(copied below)with the Silverwing Group. His home and others near
him was flooded by Hurricane Ivan rain Friday, September 17.

I met them at Scootercade and thoroughly enjoyed riding with them.
We left feeling like we had been friends for years.

Jeff and I just spoke on the phone and he and Lisa have found
property (on higher ground) and are gathering money to have a new
home built. The local Catholic church has offered to let the family
live in a convent that will allow him, Lisa and the five children
live together. They are currently living with various relatives. He,
Lisa and Trevor, the youngest, are currently living in an
apartment/office in an airplane hangar.

Jeff has remained very positive through this devastating ordeal. He
is so far behind with his business, which requires internet and
telephone, that he won't be posting for awhile. He did get internet
connection this evening and has cell phone only at this time.

I'm sharing this with his permission. I do not have his permission
to share the following information --- but I will anyway! Several
Silverwing members have used their PayPal account to send money to
Jeff and Lisa (very easy, I was able to do it). I sent to:
[email protected] He has a PayPal account. I'm not asking or
encouraging anyone to do this; just telling you what some Silverwing
Group members have done.



Haskell Sheeks
Paducah, KY

--- In [email protected], [email protected] wrote:
Hi All,

We have had a terrible thing happen to us. We had a devastating
flood and
lost our home, our 4 vehicles, and all three of our scooters Friday
afternoon. Nothing is salvageable. The cars and scooters were
totally
submerged in muddy creek waters. We are attempting to find a
temporary
home for us and our 5 kids. We do not have flood insurance to cover
the
damages. It doesn't look like homeowners insurance will help. The
house
and vehicles were paid for and now we have to start all over. At
least we
have jobs.

You can't imagine the outpouring of support and help from our
friends and
neighbors. Our family is temporarily split up as we stay with other
family members and try to regroup. We will begin looking for a
house to
rent tomorrow to act as a home base while we try to figure out where
to go
from here. I will keep in touch with my friends online, but not
bore you
with the details. At least we are alive and safe.

If anyone needs my email address to pass on personal advice to us on
insurance tips or whatever, it is [email protected] We hope to get back
into scootering when we are able to. It's a shame Lisa's Burgman 400
wasn't even a month old. We will remain positive and work on
getting to a
better place soon. I want to thank you all for your friendship and
prayers as we get our lives back in order. So many of you have
become
good friends. We will get through this and keep moving forward.

Jeff in Pittsburgh
--- End forwarded message ---