Couple Documents Post-Sandy Struggles on YouTube

Kim and Jay Purcell's home in Toms River's Gilford Parkwas destroyed by Superstorm Sandy. Feeling the frustration of the rebuilding process, especially when dealing with their insurance company and FEAM, the couple took to YouTube to document and share their experiences. Here is their story:

I am trying to get our story and other people's story like ours out there. It's important for people to know what's going on. We want others to share their stories, we want others to know we feel their pain and know what they are going through. 

We know we are not the only ones this has happened to. We have many neighbors and friends that have been affected, we continue to reach out to our neighbors and be a support system for each other. We may have lost our homes, belongings, vehicles, but what we have gained is something that can never be replaced... Our faith in God, family, and community. 

To tell you the truth we're not sure what the next step is, all we know is we are not giving up, we want to go home! The only way to explain is, it's like that feeling you have when you go away on vacation, or go away for the holiday's and you think to yourself, "boy I can't wait to go home, slip on my pjs and jump in my bed." It's that feeling times a million only... you never get to go home, it's painful and it's sad. But we continue to fight every day. We won't give up and we won't walk away!

We don't understand why the insurance companies are low balling us. We have paid our mortgage, taxes, and insurance, and continue to pay on a home we cannot live in. We want answers. Why wont the mortgage company help us, how long do they expect us to pay the mortgage on a home that is uninhabitable for the next 22 years?

Why won't Fidelity Insurance Company honor their insurance policy? We have honored our agreement for the eight years. Instead the insurance company's adjuster refused to even come out and re-inspect the property after we gutted our house and paid out of pocket for an engineer to come and look at the house.

Upon receiving the engineers report we immediately forwarded it to Fidelity's insurance adjuster, his response was, "I was already out there once, I'm not wasting my time going back." (It was right after the storm when he came, furniture was still in place and there was a large oak tree on top of my roof and blocking the front entrance. We didn't know the scope of the damage until after we gutted the house and were told the damage to the foundation was too great to be repaired and the house had to be torn down and rebuilt). We had to hire an engineer because the Fidelity flood adjuster told us it could take up to one year before they would be able to send an engineer out.

We wish the townships, federal agencies, and politicians would remember the people in New Jersey who can't go home, while they are enjoying their homes. If they could push the insurance companies and agencies to do the right thing. We did the right thing and continue to do the right thing by sending them a check every month.

As far as the area post Sandy, it feels ... forgotten, broken... it's heart breaking looking on to your street seeing two of our neighbors living in trailers in their driveways. Three other neighbors walked away from their homes because they are unable to rebuild. There are still down trees in peoples yards. It's sad, and extremely depressing. But I refuse to be a victim. We are SURVIORS and we will continue to fight with the help from people like yourself, for us, for our family, our friends and our neighbors.