1. Profile
Lynn Dale, Vice President
DALE LOOKS INTO THE EYE OF THE STORM
Florida Homeowners Ravaged by Record Hurricanes Find an Advocate in
HazardFinder’s Detailed Online Disaster Disclosure Reports
Besieged by a record four hurricanes in Florida during the summer of 2004, Lynn
Greiner Dale is no stranger to sharing in the overwhelming sense of communal loss and
suffering of her neighbors. In fact, when it comes to natural disasters and their
aftermath, Dale, a long-time public advocate for enforcing hazard disclosure laws, is
doing something now to help damage-weary Florida homeowners with the recent
formation of HazardFinder.com.
As a Vice President of HazardFinder, Inc., Dale is an environmental and consumer
activist who also brings over years of professional public-disclosure management
experience--now applying it to the direct-to-consumer hazard disclosure clearinghouse
known on the Internet as HazardFinder.com. The timing couldn't be better for Florida
residents; homeowners are looking to repair badly damaged homes, rebuild entirely or
purchase new homes altogether, and facing ever-escalating, record prices for new
housing, household insurance and mortgage financing.
"Until you personally experience it [hurricanes and other disasters], you don't really
understand the necessity for [public disclosure]," says Dale, who spent the previous four
years in the public disclosure business and has launched an integrated digital
mapping/database system based on a wide variety of government agency reports on
natural and man-made hazard conditions.
"With the growth of the Internet, it has exposed people to so many things and we see
HazardFinder as being a direct-to-consumer research and report database tool for them--
which is also moderately priced," adds Dale, who estimates that a typical
HazardFinder.com report will cost no more than $25 per order. "It is well worth the
investment to let us gather all of the information for a consumer rather than worrying
whether your life savings and health are in jeopardy" because of natural or man-made
hazards that were not disclosed by a housing developer, real estate agent or previous
homeowner at the time of sale.
Not unlike other disaster-prone states, Floridians in both hurricane-ravaged coastal and
in-land areas of the Sunshine State, including Dale's hometown of Orlando, the
extensive storm damage to homes only served to exacerbate other long-term
environmental hazards. Besides the typical hazards like flooding and emerging
sinkholes, the saturated ground soil in many Florida communities has renewed concerns

2. Page 2 of 3
Lynn Dale profile
HazardFinder Inc., Vice President
about soil toxins coming to the surface, mold and mildew, and contaminated well-
water--common concerns in most any other state of the union.
"Public disclosure is only [enforced] when it is done on a case-law basis, and that usually
happens after someone has already been diagnosed with some kind of cancer or other
disease," says Dale, who has mounted various consumer-based lobbying efforts in the
state capital, Tallahassee, in favor of stricter enforcement of public-disclosure laws. "It
really has been an educational thing for homeowners who are not aware of previously
existing environmental and man-made hazards coming to the surface because of these
horrendous storms and floods."
These hazards, even before a natural calamity strikes, often go undetected by new home
buyers. Dale says these "hidden dangers" can range from an undermining of the soil,
known as "muck" migrating from landfill and swamp lands, to contamination from
radon gases, and industrial waste seepage and agricultural-related runoff from various
fertilizers and pesticides. Along with those hazards, a plethora of government agencies
also issue monitor reports on such hazards as leaking underwater storage tanks; well-
head and well-water contamination; sinkholes; specially-designated wetland preserves;
protected wildlife habitats; and flood zones--all of which is compiled and digitally-
mapped by HazardFinder.com.
"It really is buyer-beware in this state because public disclosure laws are not enforced,
even after all of this hurricane damage we've been hit with," says Dale, whose Orlando
home was spared significant damage. "If you have children like I do [two sons], you
want to make sure you're not moving next to a school built near a waste site or a former
refuse dump. When people come down with rheumatoid arthritis, lupus or cancer,
these people don't always know how they came down with this, but it could be due to
the environmental effects of pollution and dumping. Even something considered minor,
like mold and mildew, can be dangerous to a child with asthma or allergies--these are
hidden hazards we need to know about."
With one in every five homes in the central Florida region suffering significant damage
or destroyed altogether, the unseen ripple effect in the public-disclosure arena has also
come from the insurance companies' reporting of shared information on filed claims,
when it comes to household policies with varying levels of attached hazard coverage.
In some cases, the information being reported and shared privately between insurance
companies, Dale says, has led some of her neighbors and friends--who suffered worse
household losses--to experience a tripling or quadrupling of what they paid for their
household policies prior to the 2004 hurricane season.
"People in Florida have had to take out second mortgages or other equity loans on their
homes because the deductible [on homeowner policies] are typically based on 2 to 5
percent of the value of their homes," Dale notes. "So people had to come up with $15,000
deductibles, and then possibly do that two to three times again if you filed claims from
the other hurricanes that came through."

3. Page 3 of 3
Lynn Dale profile
HazardFinder Inc., Vice President
Similar to how the credit reporting agencies keep tabs on consumer loans and credit
card accounts, Dale says consumers should also be wary of the kind of insurance claims
information being shared and disclosed to other "third-party" companies.
HazardFinder.com can also allow consumers to view what information insurance
companies are sharing when it comes to wide variety of claims and hazard data arising
from claims and disaster reporting in neighborhoods and surrounding local
communities.
"The public is definitely asking more questions, relating to correct and fair claims and
hazard reporting," says Dale, who previously served as Director of Operations for
Accent on Children's Arrangements, a company that provides childcare staffing for out-
of-town conventions, business meetings and other events. "That's because the insurance
companies, loan companies and mortgage brokers are also asking more questions before
underwriting mortgages--after all, they're in business to minimize their risks and
maximize their profits."
Minimizing risks for current and prospective homeowners is Dale's sole mandate and
HazardFinder.com's ultimate mission. Understanding the rights of consumers is also
something Dale learned intimately in dealing with customers and business people on
the retail level when the Pittsburgh, Pa. native worked 15 years in stints as a convention
and hotel services representative for the New Orleans Hilton Hotel Riverside, Trump's
Castle Hotel/Casino (in Atlantic City, N.J.) and Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino (Atlantic
City).
"As a consumer and homeowner, buying your house is usually the single biggest ticket
purchase decision you make in life and one that you have to live with in terms of your
future comfort, safety and well-being," says Dale, adding "So when you order your
[HazardFinder.com] report for what essentially equals the cost of a tank of gas, you're
doing your due diligence in knowing what you're getting or not getting--that's when
you can find peace-of-mind and a clear conscious."
About HazardFinder
HazardFinder is leading provider of the most accurate and comprehensive real property
hazard reports for residential buyers, sellers and even renters. HazardFinder is pioneering
the Florida real estate hazard report industry by creating a process by which any
concerned individual can obtain important information about their current or future
residence.
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