Tornadoes disrupt modern conveniences
Back to basics as cell service, Internet, electricity wiped out TODDLER FOUND IN FIELD DIES
HENRYVILLE, Ind. — Under a patchedup six-foot hole in the roof, people in the devastated town of Henryville gathered Sunday at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church to worship and catch up on news of their devastating tornado by word of mouth, not with cellphones or e -mail.
At least 38 people were killed in the storm system that struck Friday night and rescuers were still going door-to - door in rural areas to rule out more victims. Some of the worst damage stretched on either side of the Ohio River between Indiana and Kentucky.
The storms thrashed the conveniences of modern life, too: Cellphone signals were hard to find, Internet was out and electricity indefinitely interrupted. People went back to basics or got creative to learn about their loved ones and begin rebuilding.
“It’s horrible. It’s things you take for granted that aren’t there anymore,” said Jack Cleveland, 50, a Census Bureau worker.
At Sunday’s Mass, Father Steve Schaftlein turned the church into an information exchange, asking the 100 or so in attendance to stand up and share information. Immediately, volunteers stood to share tips about functioning in what is in many ways a tech-free zone.
Henryville’s postmaster, Lisa Smith, told people that they could pick up their mail in Scottsburg, about 10 miles north. Insurance agent Lyn Murphy-carter said the founder of her agency had told her always to keep paper records. That proved valuable without access to computers. She collected about 1,000
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A hospital official says an Indiana toddler found in a field after Friday’s violent tornadoes has died.
Fourteen-month-old Angel Babcock of New Pekin, Ind., was found after her family’s mobile home was destroyed in the storms that ravaged the Midwest and South.
She had been in critical condition at Kosair Children’s Hospital in Louisville, Ky. Chief nursing officer Cis Gruebbel says she suffered head and neck injuries and her family decided to take her off life support.
Her father, mother and two siblings were killed in the storm. claims Saturday, and was gathering handwritten claims from policyholders at church.
While it could be days before power and cell service are fully restored to the damaged areas, crews were making progress Sunday. In Indiana, about 2,800 homes were without power, down from 8,000 in the hours after the storms. But in some hard-hit areas, like Henryville, a substation and transmission lines need to be rebuilt, and that could take up to a week. Almost 19,000 customers were without power in Kentucky, according to the state’s Public Service Commission, and a few thousand more from municipal utilities and TVA, which the PSC does not track.
Even with life upended in so many ways, one family got a reminder that even a deadly tornado can’t uproot everything.
The home that Shalonda Kerr shares with her husband and Jack Russell terrier outside of Chelsea, Ind., was obliterated. But the mailbox was untouched, its front hatch tipped open, revealing a white piece of paper.
“Inside was a $300 IRS bill,” Kerr said, laughing amid the ruins.
CHICAGO — Mike and Laura Park thought their credit record was spotless. The Texas couple wanted to take advantage of low interest rates, so they put their house on the market and talked to a lender about a mortgage on a bigger home in the DallasFort Worth suburbs.
Their credit report contained a shocker: A $200 medical bill had been sent to a collection agency. Although since paid, it still lowered their credit scores by about 100 points, and it means they’ll have to pay a discount point to get the best interest rate. Cost to them: $2,500.
A growing number of Americans could encounter similar problems when they refinance or take out a loan. The Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that sponsors health care research, estimates that 22 million Americans were contacted by collection agencies for unpaid medical bills in 2005. That increased to 30 million in 2010.
Surprisingly, even after the bills have been paid off, the record of the collection action can stay on a credit report for up to seven years, dragging down credit scores and driving up the cost of financing a home. An estimated 3.4 million Americans have paid- off medical debt lingering on their credit reports, according to the Access Project, a research group funded by health care foundations and advocates of tougher laws on medical debt collectors.
Medical bills are the majority of collection actions on credit reports, and most are for less than $250, according to Federal Reserve Board research.
“We see a ton of (medical collections on credit reports),” said Matt Ernst, a vice president at Mortgage Lenders of America in Overland Park, Kan. They have an impact on financing, he said, but even he didn’t realize how much until he learned that someone with a FICO score of 680 — considered good but not excellent — will see their score drop up to 65 points because of a medical collection.
“I didn’t know a medical collection would hammer it that hard,” Ernst said. “Our investors require a 620 to even get a loan.”