www.virgomoon.com 

Virgo Moon home and studio October 26, 2003

At 5AM I awoke to see the huge Cedar fire on a ridge line about 5 miles away where it had just swept through Muth Valley, killing several. In less than 10 minutes there was a huge wall of flame around my home and studio. I was extremely fortunate to escape without injury, but lost everything except my little truck, my laptop and a drawer from my dresser with a few pieces of my own jewelry and the photo of my mom that I swept off the top of the dresser. This was the first day of the fire, so I had no idea it was burning and had no time to prepare. When I saw the fire I pulled on some clothes and by the time I got downstairs with my laptop there was fire all around the house. There was 450 gallons of propane behind me and 125 gallons just below the house, filled three days before, so it seemed I had better not wait around to see what would happen to those tanks. I drove down my long, steep, windy driveway unable to see anything for the smoke and fire, listening to that massive fire breathing. Pretty exciting!

Since the fire I have been overwhelmed by the kindness of friends and strangers. Two different friends gave me shelter while I was trying to get a little trailer up onto my property so I could return home (it took two months!). An amazing army of friends helped dig through the rubble trying to salvage anything of value (it was pointless but they didn't complain). Companies large and small gave me free advertising, shows, and steep discounts on beads, books and tools. Friends and strangers from the amazingly loving and concerned bead world sent tools, supplies, an incredible array of beads, warm wishes, prayers and encouragement. I am so grateful to all of you!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today I'm back "home" in a little travel trailer. I took the couch out and put in a jewelry bench. The cleanup is done. I have built a garden shed for my torches and my kayak. There is a rough plan of my new house and I'm hoping to get started on that soon.

Given that anyone can be faced with losing home and business due to fire, flood, hurricane, earthquake, etc. There are some things I wish I had done or known to do before the fire. There are some things I did do and was grateful not to have to worry about. I'll list what comes to mind here in hopes someone else will find it useful. Feel free to contribute! Maybe we can help each other.

Suggestions

1) Be absolutely certain you know how to get your vehicle out of your garage in a hurry if the power is off, the electric door doesn't work and it's dark. It certainly would have been difficult to try to outrun this fire on foot. My neighbor said it looked like a jet plane towed it across a 10-mile swath.

2) YES, you should have a disaster plan! In this case, I didn't have time to implement mine.

3) Scan all those old photos onto a CD and put them in your safe deposit box along with a copy of your will. I have only one photo now.

4) Scan all those important hand-written class notes and hand-drawn designs as you go. Copy those photo CDs from the photographer. Store copies off site.

5) I've always been religious about off-site backups. Although I didn't need them this time, I'm glad my friend had a copy of my computer files.

6) Years ago Robert Liu gave a lecture in which he asserted that an inventory of your bead collection was very important. Having a business inventory on my laptop helped me enormously in dealing with the insurance company. I wish I had an inventory of my book collection as well as my beads and supplies! As you may know, in order to collect your insurance, you have to list every single thing you lost. For example, my initial inventory said "box of needles." They said, "how many? what kind?" This has NOT been fun. Be aware that they may offer to forgive at least part of the inventory as a carrot to get you to settle your claim early and in their favor.

7) Photograph the rooms in your home and the special antiques, etc. Keep the photos off site. Remember you will have to list every single item you lost and its age if you expect reimbursement.

8) When you finance your home, especially in California, take exception to that clause in your deed that gives the mortgage company the right to hold ALL the insurance money after a loss, not just the loan amount. I was dumbfounded that this clause was in my deed (and incidentally so was my mortgage broker), and have the extreme misfortune to have Flagstar Bank as my mortgage company which makes the problem ever so much worse. I'm not accusing them of being unethical. However, they have been unbelievably unhelpful since the fire. I've been a good customer and cannot understand the way they've behaved. Buyer beware!

9) If you have a home-based business, make sure there is a rider covering it on your policy. They may not be willing to cover finished work, but at least tools and inventory may be covered.

10) Your home may be under-insured despite the fact that you took the insurance agent's advice on the amount of coverage you need. Insurance is a competitive business remember. Check out www.carehelp.org. It wouldn't hurt to talk to a contractor about building costs in your neighborhood and compare them to your policy limits. Unfortunately building costs also rise in a disaster situation simply due to supply and demand.