Go Fund Me for TN Wildfires

MommyLiberty5013 · December 2016

Maybe I'm being snarky, but a post just came across my FB Newsfeed for a GoFundMe for a family in TN who lost their home (due to the fires) and its contents. On what planet would someone not have home owner's insurance to cover that stuff??? For fire??? Fire is like the easiest thing to get coverage for!!!

vlagrl35 · December 2016

I"m not sure - maybe insurance doesn't cover all thats needed to replace it?

csuave · December 2016

Yes, you would think that would be covered with insurance.
Maybe someone started it for them to try and do a good deed?

abrewer5 · December 2016

I was talking to a co-worker who said that if the fire was caused by a human it would be covered under insurance but if the fires are found to be caused by nature/"act of god" that it would not be covered. I'm wondering if that's true and perhaps that's why go fund me's are being posted?

LillibetteV · December 2016

99% of the GoFundMe campaigns that I've seen are for things that should be insured against either with a policy or an emergency fund. I literally saw one for funeral expenses for a man in his 80s who died "unexpectedly". Whaaaa? Old people die and it's sad but really you need to plan for that stuff.

labro · December 2016

We're in the area of the same extreme drought that is "helping" these fires to grow out of control. A local family lost their home to a fire and while it was insured, apparently it was very expensive and limited because they lived in a log house so the money they'll get back from their loss isn't covering everything. These could be under similar circumstances...and honestly, for many people, if they aren't under a mortgage and own their property but live close to that poverty borderline, maybe homeowner's insurance is one of those items that they have a tough time finding the money for. Fires like this are very very rare in this region. I guess I am trying hard not to be judgmental about it because we can't know their circumstances.

As an aside, I personally don't care for GoFundMe's under any circumstances...I'd rather find ways to get money directly to the people in need or help to fund goods and services that are being delivered to the affected areas. We have a lot of local clothing, furniture, toy, and money drives happening in our area right now because of our proximity to the fires.

brij2006 · December 2016

abrewer5 said:

I was talking to a co-worker who said that if the fire was caused by a human it would be covered under insurance but if the fires are found to be caused by nature/"act of god" that it would not be covered. I'm wondering if that's true and perhaps that's why go fund me's are being posted?

I could actually see the opposite to be true, but that's in a case if the homeowner started the fire themselves. Then it's considered arson and insurance fraud.
A fire started by an act of nature/act of God would be unquestionably covered to me.

abrewer5 · December 2016

brij2006 said:

abrewer5 said:

I was talking to a co-worker who said that if the fire was caused by a human it would be covered under insurance but if the fires are found to be caused by nature/"act of god" that it would not be covered. I'm wondering if that's true and perhaps that's why go fund me's are being posted?

I could actually see the opposite to be true, but that's in a case if the homeowner started the fire themselves. Then it's considered arson and insurance fraud.
A fire started by an act of nature/act of God would be unquestionably covered to me.

That's exactly how I felt too. I honestly don't have faith the guy knew what he was talking about, but figured this board was a good place to get more info on it. I'll have to check out what my policy says.

hoffse · December 2016

They should have insurance, and I generally dislike gofundme's for this sort of thing too.

That being said, Gaitlinburg is facing a huge economic disaster right now, and it's going to take some time to rebuild everything that burned down. I think I read that 14,000 people had to evacuate. My family and I used to vacation there once or twice a year. It's a small resort town that has somehow managed to make tourism it's primary source of income for folks in that area, and there are a lot of people who are now homeless and jobless, at least temporarily.

The southeast generally does not see forest fires like this - the climate here is almost subtropical with the amount of rain/humidity that is normal. This drought shattered records, and Gaitlinburg literally caught fire in a matter of minutes with incredibly high winds that brought the fires down from a completely different place.

I don't like GoFundMe for individual cases like you are describing, but I would contribute to a disaster relief fund to help the people who live there. Frankly, nobody around here really knows how to handle fires at this level. It's just unprecedented, and these fires are everywhere. The last time I drove from B'ham to Nashville I passed several fires on the side of the interstate with nobody fighting them because there is not enough personnel.

short+sassy · December 2016

I wouldn't necessarily side-eye it, but I probably wouldn't donate money to it either. For exactly those reasons. That is what insurance is for. And if they didn't have any or didn't have enough insurance. That was the gamble they chose.

With that said, I would donate items. Because sometimes what victims really need, especially for those first few weeks, is just the basics to help get through it and have one less thing to worry about. Clothing, blankets, toiletries, etc.

For example, when the major flooding happened in Baton Rouge a few months ago, I donated two garbage bags full of toiletries and clothes. I donated bottled water and bleach. For those last two items, people were having to drive 30-60 minutes away to get them because they were sold out in local areas.

On a slightly different topic, I was shocked watching a Fixer-Upper episode last night. At the end of the "reveal", the buyer's twin sister surprised her by telling her that friends and family had donated $10K to help her with the cost of the new home. I was like, "What?!?!" Apparently I need better friends and family, lol.

Seriously, though. Unless I have some crazy financial win, like winning the Powerball, I would never donate money to help someone buy a house, not even my own sister. I could see parents gifting money to help their child buy a house, but anything else seems super weird to me.

hoffse · December 2016

For some context, Birmingham and Atlanta saw heavy rains earlier this week - it was the first heavy rain we have had since mid-August. Between mid-August and earlier this week, it sprinkled at my house once.

@short+sassy is right that donating in-kind goods would help a lot.

To make matters worse, as soon as we finally got some rain, tornadoes touched down too.

labro · December 2016

hoffse said:

For some context, Birmingham and Atlanta saw heavy rains earlier this week - it was the first heavy rain we have had since mid-August. Between mid-August and earlier this week, it sprinkled at my house once.

@short+sassy is right that donating in-kind goods would help a lot.

To make matters worse, as soon as we finally got some rain, tornadoes touched down too.

For extra context, it was exactly 42 days of seeing NO RAIN in Atlanta. This coupled with very very very low humidity meant that things were super dry and significantly warmer than normal and that's what really made the fires even worse. We started getting more humidity towards mid-November and according to some reports, the increased humidity and lower temperatures was helping repress the fires but still wasn't enough to stop them. Since Monday we've had 3 inches at my house (love our weather gauge!). And it's looking like we'll get another 2-3 inches starting on Sunday and ending Tuesday. Fingers crossed!

Those tornadoes yesterday were scary...I noticed a lot of trees and branches down this morning that I didn't see on my drive home last night. Several area school districts had a delayed release because the storm hit right around elementary/middle school release times.

smerka · December 2016

We recently had a dryer vent fire in our neighborhood. The family consists of 3 adults and 11(!) kids. They (neighbors) put out a call for clothes and shoes. The community responded with something 150 bags of stuff in a couple days. But then the Go Fund Me page went up. In their defense, it was for money to get them in a new place, not to rebuild.

julieanne912 · December 2016

I also know of cases where someone else starts a GoFundMe, even if the people who need it don't really want it. So, I try to look to see who started it, and if it isn't the actual people in need, I don't sideeye it at all... that's what's awesome, if you don't like it, you don't have to contribute to it.

I DID sideeye a friend's sister's gofundme. She wants to start a "travel business" where she acts as a travel agent, but actually travels all the time too. Asking for 10k for "startup" costs. To me, sounded more like the startup costs were a vacation fund so she can keep traveling without getting a real job.

Go Fund Me for TN Wildfires

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