WYLIE, TX. – The battered roof of a Wylie house got reinforcing patches Monday. Homeowner Janie Abraham looked on, hoping this will be the end of a month long rough patch, “This has been epic”. Abraham has been through one damaging hailstorm followed by an even more destructive one, “I have never seen back to back storms like there were here”.
Then, over the weekend, it was all compounded by torrential rains that came down–and came in—through Abraham’s compromised roof, where the first temporary patch job didn’t hold, “It was coming down in a hole in the fireplace. This is the second time we have emptied this bowl here.”
Many of her neighbors are in that same boat—taking on water. As we toured the home of Florencio Contreras, he pointed out a water stain across the ceiling of a bedroom, “I have to go up and look at this because this is something that happened last night”. The water is seeping in through his hail-pockmarked roof.
A few streets down, Russell Smith’s soggy insulation is being sucked out of the attic by a remediation company, “Next two days at least I know it is forecast to rain”. He nervously waits to see whether his roof patchwork will be up to the task, “Yes sir, hoping the best and praying that it will”.
Insurance adjusters have already swept through this hard hit neighborhood, but they advise residents to report any new damage as new rounds of weather roll in. “Always good to notify your insurance carrier and say this is what I am seeing today”, says Robert Smeltzer of Allstate Insurance.
Janie Abraham did just that, but got hit with the deductible double whammy. Damage from separate storms meant she had to pay her share twice. She says has given–and taken–about all she can, “I finally lost it this weekend. That is the first I have broken down. I can’t take one more ounce of stress. They would have to just put me in a rubber room and bounce around for a few days and just get out of it”
(© 2016 WFAA)