I’ve looked into moving somewhere affordable, but it seems to be an area prone to wildfires and was evacuated for such recently.

What happens during an evacuation? Where do you go? Who covers the cost it’s a hotel or something, or do people find their own accommodations? What kind of damage can you expect from smoke when you return home if it is still standing? Anything else unexpected that comes from this?

Thanks

  • yenahmik@lemmy.world
    21·
    1 year ago

    My childhood neighborhood got hit by a wildfire shortly after graduating college.

    For evacuations, your best bet will be to stay with friends/family outside of the evacuation zone. I stayed at my boyfriend’s (at the time) family’s house. If you don’t know anyone, usually there will be shelters set up in places like school gyms that you can go to. The problem with these is that there will be no privacy and you won’t be able to take any pets.

    I’m not sure who pays during the evacuation period, but if your home is uninhabitable, insurance should pay for any accomodations while you are waiting for your home to be fixed.

    For smoke remediation, your insurance will evaluate what is necessary and should write a check to fix it. We got ~$4000 for carpet cleaning, special duct cleaning, some sort of ozone treatment for the attic and then these special sponges that absorbs soot from the walls. My parents were able to DIY a few of the things and put the money towards installing AC.

    The thing no one prepared you for in this situation is the uncertainty. Pulling away from your house and seeing the fire barrelling towards it is awful. The next few days, you don’t know if you’ll be homeless or not. Your stuck in this state of wanting information, but the bureaucracy won’t say anything (it also doesn’t help in my situation the govt officials straight up lied to the media about it).

    • empireOfLove@lemmy.oneEnglish
      15·
      1 year ago

      but if your home is uninhabitable, insurance should pay for any accomodations while you are waiting for your home to be fixed.

      Bold of you to assume that any insurance company will keep operating in wildfire interface areas within the next 5 years. They’ve already been cancelling tens of thousands of policies in California over it and it’s coming to your area next.

      Reminder that insurance companies are in the business of collecting premiums, not paying out coverage. They will fuck you over at a moment’s notice no matter how long you’ve paid into their system.