FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: I am now able to get an e-mail out to you. We may not have power until mid-November. I am last year’s CCS competitor #175 Amateur and a long-time subscriber to your magazine, I could not race this past season since I was laid-off this past February. I have suffered a lot of damage to my home and my three sportbikes due to a torrential rain and wind damage due to the Wilma, my enclosed trailer tried to float down the street with my 996 inside until I roped it to a support pillar by the front porch. My large 60 year plus tree in my front yard blew over and damaged my roof which now leaks and a long branch struck my trailer during the fall and shoved it back into my carport so now there is more damage to the bike and trailer. My wife’s business lost its roof and now she is unemployed, I am not one to ask for financial assistance but insurance will not cover the damage to the bikes and other various damages around my home. If any of the readers care to contribute I would be very grateful. We cannot live in our home due to the tree that damaged the roof, my intention is not to be a sad sack to beg funds to repair the damaged bikes it is to possibly get funds to live and eat and such and to get our lives together and move forward, the bike damage is the farthest from my thoughts. I only mention that they are damaged & that the storm even touches racers and motorcyclists in all aspects, such as Katrina did with Josh Hayes. When your roof is penetrated and you can see sky the county automatically condemns your dwelling and you are more or less out in the street on your own to find a shelter or such to live, and now in Broward County the is very little room or shelters to stay at, as more and more people are losing their homes. So I just wanted to keep you up to speed on this ordeal and you would not think that I am trying to take advantage of the readers’ generosity, somehow my wife and I shall get by and move forward from this stage of our lives. We contacted FEMA through a friend with power and they tell you 7 to 10 days to process your claim, 7 to 10 days to send a FEMA adjuster to your home, 7 to 14 days for a check, if, if you qualify. Anyway that is the story here from my area. Jeff Foster Oakland Park, Florida 954-563-7915 And now some reaction: FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: In regards to the unemployed guy from the hurricane zone, I can’t believe this site would even post such a request. Why didn’t this guy start his car, hitch his trailer with his three bikes in it, and drive the hell off to safety? He got what he deserved! What kind of person claims to own three bikes (one of which is a 996 Ducati) and still needs hand-outs from the racing community? Here’s a plan: Sell the trailer and buy food and clothes. Sell one bike and buy a generator. Instant electricity. (the guy probably already has a generator inside the enclosed trailer”¦.) Sell another bike and buy the stuff to fix your roof. No more leaks. Sell the Ducati and live nice for the next year. There isn’t a single city in the United States that doesn’t have pages and pages of want ads for unemployed people. I haven’t been without a job for more than two days in my life. You are only unemployed in the U.S. if you want to be. If there is that much damage where this guy lives, than he could buy a chainsaw for $150 and make $10,000 in the next two weeks clearing trees in his area all by himself! He even has a trailer to haul the debris with! People who live in Florida already get such an absolutely unreasonable amount of U.S. tax dollars for disaster relief that they should be ashamed to ever ask for a dime. I am sick of subsidizing people living in Florida for hurricanes, on U.S. river banks for floods, and in California for fires, earthquakes, and landslides. These aren’t once-in-a-hundred-years occurences! They happen every other year. Sometimes they happen more than once a year in the same place! If you are rich enough to live on the beach, then pay for your own damage, or move where it is safer to live! Stop billing the rest of the United States for your lifestyle. Or in this case, your own stupidity. Max McAllister Woodstock, Georgia