Comment by libria | Hacker News Reader

Comment by libria | Hacker News Reader

I'd probably be the worst person to have around after someone's house burned down. I have almost zero sentiment to material except photo albums but those are in the cloud (Yes, I would weep if all of iCloud + off-site storage were unrecoverably vaporized).

My concerns are strictly financial: What is the actual loss minus insurance? This is a $300-500k question; why is the article wasting words on sweaters, ziplock bags, spatulas, gift-cards, wooden crates(wtf)?

Honestly, my biggest irritation would be lost time. I famously loathe paperwork. So I'll get to my real question:

What can all of us do *today*, pre-burned house to deal with this situation?

* Buy a ton of fire extinguishers?

* Walkthrough video showing everything of high value and poking it to prove it works?

* Pre-file some paperwork or make a spreadsheet of high value items: cost + origin + date of purchase + current value?

* Locate nearest fire dept and drop off maps with nearest route to your house?

Anyone been through this can pitch in on best prep/prevention tips? The goal being, if my house burns down right this second, I want a big red button to push that kicks off all the Residence-Disaster-Recovery script and if it exits zero, I'm sitting in this same kind of chair at the same kind of desk saying "Thanks HN".

Despite my callous tone I do want to mention my heart goes out to those affected by the Colorado fire right now. Reach out to folks there if you know them:

https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/colorado-fires-update-12-31...

From a material perspective access to cash will be the most important thing if you don't have friends or family who can help out. If your wallet with credit cards and id burned down, it will be hard to book a hotel for the night or buy essential things like food or clothing. I think that's something your can prepare already now. For example by storing a credit card in a second location with people you know or at your work place. Also in todays age where nobody remembers phone numbers anymore it might be good to try to remember the numbers of your most important contacts so you can at least contact your friends or family in case your phone is damaged.

Besides that, a digital copy of all your paperwork will help a lot down the road. Also you need to pre-declare all expensive items already before with the insurance. You can't just claim that your $50k watch collection got "lost" after the fact. It's also good to understand how the insurance will pay. Do they pay based on a % of the damages house? What happens if all of your belongings are full of smoke and not usable anymore because of it but the house is not really burned down?

> If your wallet with credit cards and id burned down

As a backup you can use your phone to make the payments, you just need to set it up first.

> Also in todays age where nobody remembers phone numbers anymore

~7 years ago my passenger called me from jail, because he'd memorized my phone number. I went to visit, got his gmail password, tried to call a few people for him. His bail was only $300, bailed him out myself... He promptly missed his next court date. Went to the bail revocation hearing, on my birthday, 7 years ago, and got most of that $300 back.

A few years later he got mickeyed up again, didn't even realize there was a warrant out for his arrest. I went to his hearing, judge was like, "you've really pulled yourself together... But I have to do something..." Think it was a few weeks in jail. I sent $ to buy snacks, he sent me a postcard (which I still have), which said how meaningful it was to have someone on the outside who cared enough about him to send $. He seems to be doing well now.

I consider it very important to have my important phone numbers memorized, on account of this story.

My blog post about the first half of this story: https://www.taxiwars.org/p/who-are-your-lifelines.html

You take your username seriously =)

See my top level post, but I’ve been through it. A couple of quick answers.

It’s hard to understand how overwhelming it is to suddenly loose every single material possession. And you’re spot on. Dealing with all the paperwork and agencies like FIMA and insurance companies. If you have the ability to help someone out in these areas it could be really helpful. Unfortunately it’s hard, and most of the “dealing” has to be done by the victims.

So, the point of the article is what can you do so help in the immediate where you have people you know suddenly have to replace literally everything. The spatulas and boxes may seem silly, but when you’re dealing with so many things at one time, even small stuff taken off your plate is helpful. For example, the first night I finally went to go to bed and hadn’t even thought to pick up a toothbrush and I was too overwhelmed to deal with it and actually broke down in tears!

Prevention tips? Well for the Oakland firestorm or the Colorado fires there’s not much to prevent. All I can say is do an inventory of your home and determine what you’d really miss if it were gone. Put those things close together so you can grab them in a minute. Or make sure you have copies. Cloud photo storage definitely makes a big difference. If you have old photos, make digital copies.

This stuff comes up because losing a house is like dealing with the affairs of someone who does without a plan.

Think about everything you need ID for, including renting an apartment or hotel. If that’s lost, you’re screwed for a month, minimum assuming you have the proofs required to get a new drivers license or passport.

Little things that you take for granted are very difficult too. Sweaters sound frivolous, except the world doesn’t stop on your account, so the kids need to go to school and you still need to go to work.

The other thing is you need the presence of mind to know what a public adjuster is and hire one asap, so you don’t get lowballed by the insurance company. That may also mean that you need the cash or credit to survive in hostile conditions for 90-120 days, depending on your state.

Pretty much agree - it would be traumatizing if my house burned down no doubt, but other than family and pets, I have no emotional connection to anything else in the house - its just stuff. If the house was on fire, I'd grab my laptop and backup disk - that would be about it.

> What can all of us do today, pre-burned house to deal with this situation?

2 is one, and 1 is none. Have a second abode nearby that is ready to go at a moment’s notice. Could be an empty home or apartment you own, or could be family and friends you can stay with.

With electronic backups of everything, I do not see anything else that would need to be protected. Although, I do have a small go box with important documents, especially government issued IDs and copies and cash that would come in handy, assuming I have the ability to extract it from the burning house.

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