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
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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).
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.
Yep. I can only speak to my experiences that occurred over a decade ago. I will say that everyone was shocked at how relatively easy to deal with they were at the time. I imagine as wildfires become more common and hit more populated areas that insurance will refuse to pay out more often. In our case, it was the most expensive fire that had ever hit our state, since most previous ones had occurred in remote areas.
We were actually lucky that our house wasn’t ruined because my parent’s policy actually changed at midnight the night the fire destroyed the neighborhood. I can only imagine the insurance trying to get out of paying up in that scenario.
Usually for cases where insurance is not feasible because of increased risk of for example wild fires, the government steps in and an insurance pool is created to cover the costs of rebuilding and temporary relocation. But it happens only after insurance companies start to retreat more broadly. I assume they cannot stop paying out especially fire claims because the costs that need to be reimbursed are immediate and will be agreed to when the fire is being reported - which usually happens within hours. All in all it would be kind of dump of an insurer to refuse payout in a case like a fire. There either was a fire or there wasn’t. So not much room for push-back I would assume. But not a lawyer so I am just being hopeful here haha.
I think the most likely outcome is that they will remove coverage for wildfires, which would likely have to be purchased separately like flood insurance works today. You are correct that if it is covered by the terms of the insurance they pretty much have to pay out at that point, as it is a contractual obligation.
I wonder how much money it would cost them to fight the subset of customers who took them to court over refused payouts?
Like if they refuse to pay out 10 x $500,000 payouts, as long as the legal fees and fines they’d pay to avoid prison costs then less than $5m, they’re making profit on a policy of “deny every claim”.
in my experience, you run off to stay with relatives in another city, or get a cheap motel, all on your own dime. there might be evacuation centers at the fairgrounds or something, where you could set up a tent, but that wasn’t an option for us what with my partner’s asthma and how smoky it was in town last time, so i don’t know any details about that. i’ve never known smoke to do any lasting damage once it has dissapated, but it ain’t good to breath if it’s too thick.
Insurance adjuster…I can let you know what a typical renters or homeowners insurance policy covers. In general, if a civil authority officially orders you to evacuate due to fire or hurricane most policies cover up to whatever limit you have in dollars or time frame to stay somewhere else during that evacuation. Heavy smoke can cause damage even if your premises is untouched. I did several claims for renters in Colorado where the neighborhood across the street burned down but the apartments survived. Everything had to be thoroughly cleaned and some things like pillows, sofas, mattresses, etc have to be replaced because you can’t get the smell out ever. $20,000 to clean or replace all the smoke damaged stuff in one unit was not unusual.
I’ve lived in high fire danger areas of California most of my life and had fires miles away from where I lived many times over the years…the threat is real but the likelihood of an evacuation or fire or smoke damages to your property is pretty low statistically.
If you have any questions specifically about insurance or that part of the process feel free to ask.
Real curious… If you were insured by the same company you work for, would you be able to handle your own claims, or is there some sort of conflict of interest?
Definitely not. Any claim involving an employee is immediately put on controlled access so only the assigned adjuster and their manager can access it and no one else. It would be all kinds of trouble if you were even tempted to access a claim involving yourself, a friend or family member. This is the same way claims that involve litigation are handled due to issues with confidentiality, records retention, discovery etc.
I live very close to areas that have been evacuated but haven’t had it happen to me personally so don’t have direct experience but this is how I’ve heard it plays out at least here in the US:
Evacuation: The local government handles the initial warnings and later directing people out of the area once it gets bad enough. There may or may not be shelters setup as well.
Where to go: That is possibly completely on you to cover, ideally you have family close you could live with but otherwise will have to figure out housing and pay for. Shelters may be setup depending on your area but may not be the best experience since you won’t have the most privacy or comfort. I have heard stories of people just having to live in their car for awhile due to their house being destroyed while waiting for insurance payouts. I would think some insurance policies would offer reimbursement for the funds once the claim goes through but you will likely want to have an emergency fund for the immediate needs.
Damage: Fire damage insurance is available that would either cover the cost to rebuild or pay you out. No idea on the specifics or if this applies to Canada. If it hits a large area it typically takes awhile to 1. Get paid from insurance 2. Find available construction companies to rebuild since a lot of people will need them all at the same time. I know for awhile there were donation drives to help the affected families find and pay for hotels, etc. even months after the fires. I would guess that as climate change makes these more frequent rates will likely go up or you’ll start to see insurance companies not offer it in certain areas.
Again this is all stuff I’ve heard second hand and didn’t get a lot of details and may not apply at your area, I’d recommend researching how it works in your area for sure.
Don’t move to Montana.
Don’t know for sure. But my brother in law hosted a friend and his live stock in Lake Stevens (suburbs) when Index, WA was evacuated a couple years ago. It was wild. Anywho, I got the impression it was all self-orchestrated and funded.
NW Montana here. As others have said, shelters are usually setup at the fairgrounds or schools. Insurance would likely cover up to some amount as well but you’d have to talk to your agent.
