Bushfires - Spare a thought for the victims

[Glider]

In the end the first insurance builders were sacked and a replacement was supplied. The replacement builder had to redo most of the work the first company carried out. I would personally use the builder the insurance company recommends and check the work as they have to make it right. This is what you are paying for after all, btw the must warrant the work.

I rest my case. Exactly the problems to which I was referring. Personally I would rather use my builders who require minimal supervision because I know they are committed to good craftsmanship and each inspection reveals minimal defects because they are proud of their work. Warranties are easily arguable in a situation where the outcome is binary. Does it leak or not? etc. When it comes to good joinery, square and level or close enough, good mitre or not or leave it to the painter to fill and crack later, I would prefer not have to argue with some desk jockey at the insurance company. IMO there's a lot of merit in having a no d*ckheads policy. Having the government privatise tradies' training and shorten apprenticeship times has done nothing to improve outcomes for customers.

mick

[Bushmiller]

One of the first principles of insurance is "utmost good faith."

Regards
Paul

[AlexS]

Daughter & Granddaughter evacuated from Jervis Bay last night. Fortunately, their house is empty as they are in the process of moving to the north coast. Her husband is still there, if necessary will defend the house as long as it is safe then head for the beach. He is well equipped with camping equipment.

Hope Jim Davey will be OK, the road near him has been closed on & off.

[Glider]

Gotta hand it to NRMA who held he contents policy for the farmhouse. The full amount on the policy landed in the bank today. It took three days from the time the claim was made.

The farm insurance covering house and fences will take much longer I suspect, but no complaints about that.

mick

[aldav]

A big scare for my daughter and son-in-law last night. They now live in Tassie but still own a house on the escarpment between North Nowra and Kangaroo Valley. The Southerly change blew the fire front just to the West of them. Whew! Son-in-law spent a couple of days preparing the place late last week, fortunately it's a lot more defendable than most of the other places up their road. Just remains to be seen where the fire spreads next.

I know Beardy is in this general vicinity too. If I've got his location fairly right he should be ok at the moment too.

[Beardy]

A big scare for my daughter and son-in-law last night. They now live in Tassie but still own a house on the escarpment between North Nowra and Kangaroo Valley. The Southerly change blew the fire front just to the West of them. Whew! Son-in-law spent a couple of days preparing the place late last week, fortunately it's a lot more defendable than most of the other places up their road. Just remains to be seen where the fire spreads next.

I know Beardy is in this general vicinity too. If I've got his location fairly right he should be ok at the moment too.

Yes so far so good, I was concerned last night of potential spot fires coming off that southerly change but fortunately we didn’t receive any.
If you are in the fires path there isn’t much you can do, luck plays a big part in it

[elanjacobs]

This was Melbourne airport last night, I thought we were still in the clouds until I saw the runway lights underneath us. One of the flight attendants said she was surprised we even landed.

IMG_20200106_203347.jpg

[Chesand]

I live about 15 minutes north of the airport and it was certainly quite thick last night. It rolled in late afternoon.

[Bushmiller]

This is a pic by Matthew Abbott first shown on New year's Day.

Bushfire by Matthew Abbott.jpg

Apparently he took the pic and then went to bed instead of forwarding it immediately to media organisations. (His wife is an editor at Der Speigel.)

"It wasn’t that Abbott was lackadaisical about capturing a dramatic life-and-death situation the day before—it was just that there had been little international interest in what he’d done on the fires in the weeks previously.

This time, however, he got a message from a New York Times editor; if he could send a high-resolution version of the image, they could get it on the front page. Within hours, Abbott’s image (above) became his most impactful in his 14 years of photography. It was on the covers of several British newspapers and put on Instagram by Greta Thunberg and Leonardo DiCaprio."

I don't believe I am transgressing copyright as it has already appeared on social media and has gone viral (see, I have all the terms.) So I suppose that you have all already seen it and I will be way back in the queue for copyright infringement. Absolutely mind blowing and captures both the emotion and tragedy at one hit.

Regards
Paul

[Glider]

Just a quick update, folks. It's now been 35 days since SWMBO's 1867 family farm house was destroyed in the Bodalla fire. Her sister lived on the property. Remember the $1000 supposedly handed out to tide the victims over? Well, she hasn't seen a red cent of it yet. Some of the agencies with whom she has tried to deal are asking for utilities bills to prove residency! So she has to apply to the utilities companies to obtain copies. Never mind that the Eurobodalla Council could easily confirm her residency, her drivers licence shows her address and anything else she had in her wallet on New Years Day could identify her.

We understand that agencies have to be sure about who they're handing out money to, but there are >500 families in and around Bega who are now homeless and the situation is critical. If anybody saw Andrew Constance on Q&A last night, he's one of the good ones. And if Shane Fitzsimmons doesn't get an AC in June, then he bloody well should have.

There's something like $50 million in donations available. At least the insurance companies are on the job.

mick