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Hampton Roads residents wrestle with holding back waters

IT WAS MORE THAN just deja vu for Brian and Chalice Bell when Hurricane Irene hit in August.

They'd definitely lived through the rising water, the damaging winds and the uncertainty of just how much their two-story Inland Colony home in Chesapeake could take during the nor'easter of November 2009.

Except when Irene hit, they were more prepared.

"We all live by The Weather Channel in this neighborhood," said Brian Bell.

So, as he watched the storm approach, Bell, with help from brawny neighbors, rolled up carpets, moved dear items to higher ground and filled up a 36-foot truck with expensive items from his garage workshop and other places, then hauled them away to safety.

By necessity, like other Hampton Roads' residents whose homes have been ravaged by nor'easters, hurricanes or tropical storms, Bell learned all he could about safeguarding his house from future flooding, making sure his insurance worked for him, and protecting his assets and family.

Still, there are no guarantees, especially when you live in a neighborhood prone to flooding, or, like Hampton Roads, in an area that can be hit by a devastating storm at some point.

"Elevate or relocate" is what the Federal Emergency Management Agency suggests for people living in flood-zone areas, said Joseph Anderson, FEMA's hazard mitigation branch director.

"Relocating is the greatest solution, to get completely out of the flood zone," Anderson said, but "it's hard to tell people you have to move. Everybody can't up and move."

In Bell's neighborhood, which was developed in the 1950s, several people have elevated their homes.

But that's not a feasible option for him as a two-story homeowner, he said.

What Bell has chosen to do, as have many homeowners caught in the deluge, is move up hot-water heaters, air-conditioning and heating units, and raise duct work out of the water's path.

Health plans requiring more and more from workers

By Elizabeth Simpson, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.

Nov. 13–People perusing their health insurance options for next year will probably notice a clarion call that’s been reverberating across the country for the past few years:

Put more skin in the game.

As health care costs rise and the economy continues to sputter, employers are crafting plans that require more from their workers: higher deductibles and other cost-sharing features; more commitment to improving their health; and managed money accounts that get them more engaged in their health care decisions.

Susan Reilly of Virginia Beach signed up for a high-deductible plan and health savings account about five years ago. Her family was fairly healthy, so she figured the plan would help cut back on premium costs.

But recently, she experienced a sobering side to this new world of health care when her husband found a bump on his leg that looked like it was in a vein.

They first called his doctor’s office, where someone said to go to the emergency room. Rather than risk an expensive ER bill, Reilly told her husband to call a “health-line” counselor provided by her insurance company. That person, too, advised him to go to the emergency room because it could be a blood clot.

“I hate to fly in the face of two health professionals,” Reilly told her husband, “but try going to the urgent care center.”

He did, and the bump, it turned out, was not a blood clot. The cost was $83 — much less than an ER bill.

Still, Reilly found her role in the situation nerve-wracking.

“It’s scary,” she said. “I’m making decisions about something that could have been a blood clot where he could have ended up with a stroke.”

One idea behind “consumer-driven” health care is to make people more accountable for their health and to choose appropriate care over unnecessary treatments that contribute to spiraling costs. Making people think like consumers in their health care choices could help avoid duplicative services and encourage them to talk with their providers to find the most cost-effective treatment.

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