Madeleine Coles

Staff Writer

Marilyn Evans was at her granddaughter’s house on Dec. 29, 2016, when she received a call that her motorhome was on fire. When she got there she said that it was a mess.

“It wasn’t burned on the inside,” Evans said, “but everything was blackened.”

Evans has been a bus driver for Pocatello Regional Transportation (PRT) for 23 years, and has driven on campus for the last 18 years. Many students know her as the cheerful woman who takes them to and from class every day.

Evans’ sunny disposition is certainly helping her get through the frustrating aftermath of the fire, particularly dealing with her insurance.

Evans is insured by Nationwide. She says that before she even left her granddaughter’s house, she called her agent to let them know what had happened.

She says that her insurance sent her about $1000 to live off of and told her that there would be more available. So Evans checked herself, and her son Robert, into a motel, but the cost of the motel caused the money to be spent much more quickly than she had expected.

After the insurance sent the second set of money, Evans decided to buy a camp trailer to live out of until the insurance agency worked through her claim.

But a month after the fire, her insurance still has not settled the claim. “I’m worried because the insurance hasn’t done anything,” Evans said. “They have no idea what they’re going to do. Nothing’s happened.”

Nationwide told Evans they were going to take her motor home to find out if it was fixable or not, but she says that no one has yet.

“I feel really abused and stressed because I don’t know what they’re going to do,” Evans said. “I might be in that camp trailer the rest of my life.”

Evans also claims that her agent has not expressed any personal concern for her.

“He could have picked up the phone and asked me if I was okay,” she said.

However, Evans has not been completely without help. David Price, who used to work for PRT but is now an insurance agent for Farmers Insurance, has been helping Evans with the insurance process.

Price said that he received a call from another bus driver who explained Evans’ situation to him, and he decided to help her out.

“The claims process can be challenging,” Price said. “She wasn’t having any luck with her current agent in helping her get the paperwork filled out, so I just offered to help with the paperwork for her.”

According to Price, Nationwide has everything that they need from Evans. “They’re just kind of in limbo right now,” he said.

While Price noted that he was not Evans’ agent and was simply trying to help her through the claims process, he said that he can understand why she is frustrated.

For now, despite having done everything necessary on her part, Evans’ future is still unclear.

“Nationwide has not even come close to deciding what they are going to do with my home,” she said. “We might not know until next summer what they decide to do.”

Evans said she is in a dither about what is going to happen, but she is trying to remain optimistic.

“I’ve learned a lot from this experience,” she said, chuckling. “I have too much stuff.”