I apologize to my regular readers that I have no time to blog currently. But I do want to share an article from the Journal of Accountancy on How to keep a natural disaster from becoming a financial disaster. I know many of our brothers and sisters have been hurt by Hurricane Sandy and so I want to share this article although I'm unable to blog for the time being.
Some important tips:
*Make your claim quickly, but don't settle quickly. Get professional estimates before settling.
*Make temporary repairs to prevent further damage.
*Don't enter into a contract until you know what the insurance settlement will be.
*Make contact with contractors, rather than rely on those who come door to door.
*Get multiple bids.
And things that can be done before the disaster hits:
ReplyDelete* Maintain an emergency fund (and add more liquidity before the event if possible).
* Follow directions (some who didn't follow directions regarding evacuations and staying off the streets perished).
* Prepare (fill up with gas, get canned food, bottled water, cash, etc).
Make sure your contractor is licensed in your area and bonded! (I specify in your area, because in NYS, contractor's licenses are only good city to city.)
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw my cell phone stop working, even though the worst part of the storm had already passed, I reasoned that I could also lose electricity, even though the worst part of the storm had already passed. When the electric lights failed, I already had candles burning.
ReplyDelete"candles burning" - bad idea due to fire hazard. Flashlights are much safer.
ReplyDeleteAnon,
ReplyDeleteCan I assume you light Shabbos flashlights and Chanukah flashlights, too?
Avi,
ReplyDeleteThose are stationary and are not the primary light source. Candles are often taken in a power outage situation from room to room lit and used to find things in the dark and sadly start fires.
I'm not discounting the safety danger, just that we Orthodox Jews ought to have fairly regular exposure to and experience with using candles safely. We give the kids LED flashlights for their rooms/walking around during the week, but we put big candles (scented or yartzeit) in the bathrooms and main rooms for consistent light over multi-day power outages.
ReplyDeletesorry to hear you've closed the blog down...
ReplyDeleteClosed the blog down???? What?
ReplyDelete