Sjfh wrote:
Watch and see. You don't give your fellow Americans much credit. I believe in the American spirit...we can do anything we say we can. On the other hand, if we insist we can't, than we won't.
That right there is the difference between our two parties broken down to the most basic ideals.
I'm all for DIY projects, but when buildings have to meet local, state, and federal building codes, they are no longer DIY projects.
My father did as much as he could around our house to save money, but there were limits on what he could do, and requirements that had to be met to pass building inspections.
I've been known to climb ladders and sit on the roof, stripping cracked and peeling paint off of our house before painting it. Our house was a dormered cape. I'm the one who climbed into a tree to thin crossing branches with a chain saw. I'm the one who climbed ladders in the winter to try to clear ice dams from the roof and gutters, after raking the snow off the roof with my father's home made roof rake. His DIY project was around decades before the metal commercially produced versions were patented.
My older brother and both of his sons are and have been volunteer fire fighters. There have been horror stories exchanged about DIY projects gone wrong because the owners didn't know the laws, or chose to ignore the laws.
When we were clearing out my mother's house after her death, my brother pointed out a common household cleaning item that's actually a Fire Hazzard that most people don't know about. (Not a product, but an item.) It's something that the older generations wouldn't think twice about using around the home, but the younger generations might not have been exposed to.
So it's not as simple as you make it out to be.
The scammers will be out in full force to take advantage of the storm victims. It will be in their best interests not yet use the fly by night contractors that will come out of the woodwork to take advantage of them.
They'll take the cash deposit then leave the owners high and dry when they move onto their next victim. We've seen this happen after EVERY major disaster to hit our country. What makes you think this time would be any different? It won't.
Even with the VOLUNTEER spirit, there will be victims of scammers.