Under-Insuring Can Cripple a Home

"If there's a weather disaster on the way, you can't buy insurance. Usually there's a suspension or moratorium on writing new policies, so you've got to plan ahead," Salvatore said.

In the months following Isabel, the Buchanans got three different estimates from three different claims adjusters for the repairs to their home, ranging from $18,000 to $42,000. Believing that these estimates were inadequate, they applied directly to FEMA and received $68,000 last month.

But Buchanan said a shortage of contractors and a spike in building supplies that followed in Isabel's wake meant repairs wouldn't begin until January 2005 at the earliest. The process upended their lives and left them wondering if they should relocate.

"When you go through something like this, it's not only a financial loss, but psychological and emotional loss, too," Buchanan said. "You basically go through a death because everything you've worked for your whole life, it is taken away."