8.  Lose Your Home in a Disaster

 

It could be much worse than shut out of your home for a few days.  You could lose your home altogether.  This would be a hard blow financially and emotionally.  Your comfort zone would be gone for anytime in the near future.  If it ever happens to you, I am truly sorry.  And, a lot of people would be truly sorry and try to be helpful.  Make up your mind in advance to accept any help that doesn’t have strings attached.  An aside here is that if you personally are attempting to help someone who has lost their home in a disaster you want to be very careful to only give things that are totally functional and useful.  A person or family who has just lost their home does not need a nice shirt that ‘just needs half its buttons sewn on’, an expensive pair of jeans in the right size that just happens to need a new zipper, a basket full of mis-matched socks, or a nice casserole that has been sitting in your freezer for three years.  It is AMAZING what useless things people will give to someone who is in need.  Friends of mine lost their home in a fire a number of years ago.  They were not home and lost EVERYTHING in the house.  In addition to the clean-up from the fire, they also had at least a dump truck full of garbage that people had given them in the name of ‘helping’ that they had to deal with.  Possibly one of the worst things people did was send broken toys to two children who had just lost every toy they had.  I don’t mean people need only new items or only expensive things.  Do your best to give useful items in good condition.  

 

But, what do you do if your home is lost? 

Take it one second at a time.

If you are still alive God will take you through it.

The first thing to do is make sure your family is safe.  If you have pets, they are second on the list. 

You need to come up with a place to stay for at least the first night.  Hopefully you have a place pre-arranged for such a time.  And if you don’t some family or friend will hopefully come forward with an offer that will at least give you some breathing room.

 

You need to contact your insurance company.  They will have the information they need to get started if you lost everything in the disaster.

 

If you are in the middle of a large scale disaster then it is likely that help will show up in the form of church groups, local help, and even FEMA.  Don’t hesitate to accept offered help.  I personally would do everything possible to avoid a FEMA camp – or shelter area.  If you must accept such help make a solemn promise to yourself that you will make the stay as temporary as possible.  Don’t wait on them.  Look for other options yourself.  Which brings up another possibility.

 

If you have lost a home in one area due to a large disaster the question would be, ‘do you still have a means of support?’  If you are retired then you still have your retirement income unless it was tied up in some sort of rental property that was also destroyed.  If you find yourself homeless and jobless you will want to determine if you will actually be able to stay in the area or if you might have a better future in a different area.  Possibilities might include a place nearer to family, nearer to jobs, nearer to a good church, or nearer to a place you just happen to like/love.  What really matters is staying true to who you really are.  Don’t do anything that goes against your core values.  Leave the door open for anything else. 

 

If you are staying in the same area you may want to consider a relocation to an area that may be at least slightly safer.  Things to consider might be getting a home above the dam on a lake or on ground that is higher than the river levee in the area.  If mud slides are a real problem you may not want a home on top of a hill that primarily consists of clay without many trees.  Obviously a home on a flood plain is more likely to flood.  You may have a lovely river view, but is it really worth it?  You don’t want a home on the floor of a canyon.  You may not want beach front property anymore.  A hint is that if the homes are built on stilts it may not be an area in which you can avoid flooding.  Make your life as simple as possible.  There will be enough problems that arise in spite of taking every precaution.