Hurricane season warning from Saint James City woman still rebuilding

SAINT JAMES CITY, Fla. (WINK) — Lynn Fanning's home still looks like a disaster zone nearly four years after Hurricane Ian badly damaged it.

• SEE ALSO: 'I just want my home back': A Hurricane Ian survivor's struggle to rebuild

Fresh drywall sits unfinished on the walls, and the floor remains ripped up in the Saint James City house where she sleeps each night. As hurricane season begins, Fanning wants her story to serve as a warning so no one else ends up living in a mess like she is.

"I may start crying because there are still a lot of emotions," Fanning said.

From her blown-out kitchen window, Fanning watched as Hurricane Ian tore through her home on Sep. 28, 2022.

"I had 32 inches of water in my garage, and at one point had 100 mile an hour winds coming through my house," Fanning said.

That was only the beginning of her nightmare. She brought her story to WINK's Listens event in Matlacha, hoping someone would hear her.

"I just want somebody to listen and to look at this because I'm overwhelmed, and there are times that I get up in the morning, I just can't do this anymore," Fanning said.

With the main road to Pine Island washed out and contractors stretched thin, Fanning says it took time to find someone to work on her home.

"I was running out of options to get my house put back together, because I still had wind coming through it and moisture," Fanning said.

It was January, nearly four months after Hurricane Ian, when Fanning says she eventually signed a work authorization with a mitigation company based out of New Jersey. She says things quickly shifted in the wrong direction.

"I believe their intention was to over-inflate the work and present the bill to my insurance company, which they did, and then they didn't provide the required documentation that they should have… so that left me in the middle," Fanning said.

Fanning says her insurance company denied her claim, leaving her responsible for more than $151,000 in mitigation work. The restoration company sued her, and they just settled in court.

Cole Gale is an insurance attorney not involved in Fanning's case, but he says situations like this aren't uncommon after major storms.

"I know after a catastrophic event, there's a sense of urgency, and people tend to act in the heat of passion, that can be a real problem," Gale said.

He warns before you sign anything: take pictures of your property before and after the storm, file a claim quickly, get multiple quotes before agreeing to any work and provide your insurance company with those work estimates to make sure it's covered.

"The insurance company will do a peer review and say it's not covered, that's not the scope of the damages, that's you're basically paying for a luxury product, and that's not what's necessary here," Gale said.

When asked what she would have done differently, Fanning had a simple answer.

"I probably would have moved someplace else 34 years ago," Fanning said.

But after 34 years and many hurricanes, this is still home for Fanning.