Insurance/Recovery Tips
Eye Movement Desensitization found to be "an effective treatment of trauma"
I recently heard a disaster survivor talking about "EMDR" to help treat stress after a disaster and found a couple of snippets/websites that I thought you might find helpful if you wanted to start researching it. This particular survivor said:
"While focusing on the event or some part of it you move your eye from right to left repeatively, if not able to do it you can use your finger moving in front of your eyes and have your eyes follow your finger once you can do that (moving eye with out focusing on that) then continue to move eyes and focus on the traumatic event, and any emotions or the place in your body where you feel those emotions and any statement you say to your self usually about the event as you do this usually the image will change or emotions will change just allow that to happen and continue to move your eyes back and forth.
You can stop to rest them for a while and then just refocus on where ever you were before and continue to process, after awhile the emotions should shift and then recede, often the mental images change for a while and then are either not there, or not have the emotions attached to them. Often are able to think about the original event very differently."
Websites you can use to start research are:
Archival Video of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake
Okay, this is more of an interesting side note rather than a recovery tip, but it is very interesting!
I was truly amazed by this. This is actual, archival, video footage shot right after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Internet Archives has placed this 23 minutes of film (23 minutes and 25 seconds to be exact) online. The film has many scenes depicting damage done by the earthquake and subsequent fire. The film even includes a 360-degree view of one severely damaged area. Equally fascinating, if not more so, are the people. Women in dresses and men in hats walking around, sitting in wagons, or standing in lines. I found it mesmerizing watching them move around.
It is so rare to see actual film footage from this period of time. Needless to say, the film is very old and somewhat damaged. In a number of places, the film rolls, which can be quite distracting. Toward the end, there are also a few repeated scenes. Despite the problems, this is definitely a film worth watching.
LA Fire Department gives Flood Recovery Tips
Take a look at the tips given by the Los Angeles Fire Department regarding Flood Recovery.
http://lafd.blogspot.com/2010/01/nine-steps-of-flood-recovery.html
FEMA Creates new floodplain maps
Many homeowners have found themselves forced to buy flood insurance after FEMA released new floodmaps at the begining of the year.
For more information on the maps, you can visit FEMA's website HERE.
For news coverage given by the LA Times, click HERE.
Home Owner's Insurance Renewals after a loss
The Homeowner Bill of Rights states that the insurer must renew the HO policy at least once following a total loss (Insurance Code Section 675.1).
It also states they cannot cancel the existing policy on a damaged (partial loss) house, but it could mean that the insurer could non-renew the policy of a partial loss. We’ve seen insurers use this loop hole to non-renew a partial loss home.
So, it is clear a total loss must be renewed at least once and partial loss policies cannot be cancelled during the individual policy period. However, insurers may non-renew a partial loss or other homes in the fire area at the end of the policy. Keep in mind that policies can always be cancelled for non-payment, at the homeowner’s request or reasons stated in Insurance Code Section 676.
It is not clear how long the Insurer must renew the total loss policy. While stating the policy must be renewed at least once, the statute states the policy cannot be cancelled while the house is under reconstruction which could take, as we have seen, more than two years following the fire.
You can find more information at:
