As a Southern California resident, the devastating events of the L.A. Fires are still vivid in our minds. Since January 7th, over 16,000 homes have been destroyed, and tragically, thirty lives were lost. Fueled by the fierce Santa Ana winds, the fires forced residents to evacuate urgently, with little time to save their most cherished belongings.
These families, who have suffered such profound loss, are slowly beginning to rebuild their lives. With some time to pause and reflect, they found an opportunity to evaluate what can be learned from this heartbreaking tragedy. And today, I’m going to share these lessons with you.
NOTE: The photographer of these two pictures was raised in the Alta Dena community and heartbreakingly covered this story of his hometown, at times pausing to call long-time friends to share the news that their childhood home was now gone.
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A dear colleague and his wife who lost their home in the Eaton Fire in Alta Dena, shared their experiences and the valuable lessons they learned on how others can better prepare.
I asked permission to share these lessons with my readers, and they graciously agreed. Their hope is that as many people as possible can benefit from their experience. They included answers to common questions along with important recommendations for preparedness.
Answers to Commonly Asked Questions:
1. What insurance company do you have?
Wawanesa, which is now a subsidiary of AAA.
2. Has your insurance been good to you?
Yes. We met with our claims adjuster the day after the fire, and we’ve received an advance of funds. Wawanesa’s housing contractor helped find a hotel, and they paid the bill directly. And, their construction consultant prepared a comprehensive estimate of what it would cost to rebuild our house. The insurance process has gone smoothly.
3. Is our insurance company (Wawanesa) better than others?
We think so, maybe. We believe what benefitted us was being prepared, but we could have been better.
4. What do you recommend to others to prepare for a disaster?
*They’ve compiled the following list of things they believe would be helpful in preparing for an emergency.
Preparedness Recommendation “To-Do” List:
- Take photos and videos of the exterior and interior areas of your house and yard from every angle. Open all drawers, cabinets and closets as well. Upload the photos and videos to the cloud.
- We were able to get paid out for our personal property, because we took at least 200 pictures in our house. A lot of them were taken under threat of evacuation. Not the best time, so we highly suggest doing it earlier.
2. Scan all all your old hard copies of photos and also upload them to the cloud.
3. Organize your important papers and keep them together.
4. If you have a “fire-proof” safe make sure that the dial is not plastic because it will melt in a fire.
5. Consider installing a whole-house generator. This gave us several extra hours to take photos and pack our cars.
6. Sign up for your city, county, and utility providers alert systems. Register your cell phone number, and your email address
7. Make a thorough list of all items you’d take in case of an evacuation.
8. Review your homeowner’s policy with your insurance agent annually, adding any improvements, and ensuring that you have sufficient coverage to repair or rebuild your house.
- There were a lot of people who hadn’t looked over their homeowners insurance policy for years. The cost to rebuild a house today is a lot higher than 10 years ago.
9. Consider developing a home inventory list. For a sample listing and more resources visit: www.uphelp.org. This consumer group was formed to help people following disasters.
10. Keep your receipts! We kept receipts for all appliances, remodels and upgrades: the new roof, water heater, the tile, the fixtures—everything. Having this information we were able to prove the cost of rebuilding our house and thus the amount of compensation we were able to receive. Note: Be sure the receipts are part of your evacuation kit.
11. Move your emergency kits from your garage, including tools, into a safe interior area. Our garage, where we stored our emergency supplies, was the first to catch on fire and collapse.
- Don’t have an Emergency Kit ready? This highly rated Emergency Kit will help get you started. In addition you’ll want to add those personal items that will prove to be essential – think passports, diapers, eyeglasses, prescriptions, pet food and phone chargers. Check out this comprehensive list compiled by the Red Cross for guidance.
In their own words:
“We were watching the fire that night in the northeast mountains, but what we missed was that it had reversed course, and it was in the foothills just northwest of our house. Only when we went to drive out did we see the flames. We have since learned that the fires were only two blocks away when we received the alert on our phones to evacuate.
We’ve been up to our property a few times to see what remains. When you can’t recognize your refrigerator you know it’s bad. We found a piece of one of our mugs that was inscribed, ‘Live by Faith.’
We also found part of a plate that was inscribed, ‘Thankful.’ I thought to myself, “Really? Thankful!” But then, I realized that, in fact, we are thankful – for 27 years of enjoying our home, fixing it up, and creating wonderful memories. So, yes, we are thankful!
We hope and pray that no one ever has to encounter what we, and so many other families, have experienced. We were not as prepared as we would have liked but we’re glad we are safe, and now on the road to recovery.”
I echo their prayer that we never have to endure what this family and so many others have since January 7th. Yet, I hope that from their tragedy, some good can come of it. We can learn to be better prepared in the face of an emergency.
I hope this list of Tips of Disaster Preparedness has inspired you to take action. It’s easy to forget about it when a disaster feels like a thing of the past, but being proactive and gathering supplies could make all the difference for your family’s safety
A heartfelt thank you to my colleague who so generously shared their story and lessons. Your strength, faith, and resilience are an inspiration and a beacon of hope for many. May God bless you~
In the spirit of being grateful, want to learn how to live with an ATTITUDE of GRATITUDE? Check out my blog post HERE!
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