We dove as the building came down on us

Mark and Alora Westra own and operate 2 sign businesses, Barn Sign Works and Old West Signs. Their signs are created using time-proven traditional techniques to ensure the highest quality and a one-of-a-kind feel that only a hand-carved sign can provide. They have two sons, Jason and Jarrod and two grandchildren, Savannah and Jayden. They spend their free time flying hot air balloons, working with the Riley Children’s Foundation, traveling and enjoying time with family and friends.

Email Mark  ~  Email Alora  ~  3l7-485-6063

My wife and I started a business in l981 and moved out of two nice homes and into a 75-year-old barn. Over the years of cleaning, building and personalizing such an unusual building, we fought to get insurance to cover our belongings and the facility.

It was always in the back of my mind: If it was so difficult to get insurance, where would we be if we ever needed to file a claim? We didn’t want to be where many people are, fighting the insurance company for the protection we paid for.

Then we met Mike and Cindy Hartman. Something clicked; after we learned more about their service, we signed on. They took an accurate and detailed inventory of our eclectic home and business.

This was two years prior to an event on the evening of Friday, May 30th, 2008 that changed our lives.

The whole month consisted of cleaning, organizing, and planting flowers and a garden in anticipation of a wonderful summer with family and friends. We had invited friends to come for Memorial Day weekend to kick off the summer.

While putting tools, mowers, etc. away, we got a weather report that thunderstorms were expected, but no severe weather was predicted. We went out to dinner and retired early to be rested for the weekend.

No Warning…
When we went to bed at 10:00, I closed the windows, as there was some lightning and light rain. I am a pilot, so I watch the weather each day very carefully. We never imagined that we were facing an unpredicted super cell developing at that very moment. No tornado warning, no news blitz… Comfortable and secure, we fell asleep.

I awoke at 10:40. The power was out; there was cloud to cloud lightning and absolutely no wind. I immediately grabbed Alora and told her we needed to get downstairs.

In 27 years, we had only done that 3 times. In that same 27 years, we had ridden out hundreds of storms, even a tornado in l989 that took out a barn south of us.

Living in a building that had survived thousands of storms before I was even born, we thought we were immune to this type of thing. Even so, something or someone got us going downstairs as fast as we could in total darkness. As we approached the doorway to go to the lower level, we heard the sound of a train going through a tunnel at l00 miles per hour (the best way I can describe it). We dove into the landing as the building came down on top of us.

Were we lucky? Was our guardian angel helping us? You can answer those questions.

As the water poured down on us and all our personal possessions - computers, furniture, artwork, plus all our business contents - inventory, power tools, hand tools ... 27 years of work and sacrifice, I became calm and determined. We had just survived a natural disaster with scratches.

The Aftermath…
My calm had come from knowledge that we had insurance and were still alive. I had no reason to think the most challenging time of our lives was ahead of us. Could we survive the turmoil, stress and fight to come?

The next day, over l00 volunteers, including our guests (remember them?), helped us salvage what we could before a month of rains began three days later. We took comfort in the belief that our insurance would come through. Our local agent, who we had been with for 28 years, showed up a week later.

Our homeowners’ company representative, who was from Texas, called me on a cell phone to tell me he was inundated and would be there in a couple of weeks. FEMA stopped by -- no help. Our business insurance company sent their representative on Sunday, two days later.

As we got into the middle of the cleanup, rebuild, bids, ordering, and continuing to run a business out of a damaged building, one asset remained my pillar of strength: the Hartman Inventory.

As we progressed through 6 months of round-the-clock camping at our facility and rebuilding, that Photo and Document record was our ace in the hole. The homeowners rep, who eventually showed up 2 weeks later, wanted us to produce a spread sheet for him on our computer so he could e-mail it to his home office. Duh! Our computers had been destroyed. The Hartman Inventory became our sword to cutting through all the BS the company produced to slow or stop any settlement.

The one constant that eventually got us a settlement was that inventory portfolio. Without that inventory, we might still be fighting them.

The Lesson…
Insurance companies will fight you over every cent. They will reduce all your belongings to salvage value or deny them altogether if you don't have documentation.

We were fortunate to have many friends, neighbors and volunteers who helped us get our home and business back up and running. In some ways, we are even better off than before the storm. Any catastrophe will take its toll on you and your family. You need to protect yourself, and never assume the insurance company will be there for you.

We had a 42-year-old neighbor; his house was extensively damaged in the same storm. He continued to work night and day on the house and at his job and fought the insurance companies to settle until the day he moved back in. The night he moved back into his house, he died of a heart attack.

Protect yourselves with every arsenal you can, and for God’s sake, have all your possessions and facility recorded and up-to-date with an inventory.