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Fire survivors faced insurance headaches

25.09.11

Karen Reimus slowly pilots an SUV through her Scripps Ranch neighborhood of large Tuscan-looking homes with red tile roofs and meticulously tended lawns. As kids play and adults stroll the streets greeting each other by name, she points out the homes that vaporized eight years ago after the Cedar Fire leapt through the subdivision, leveling more than 300 homes.

"That one burned, that one burned, that one burned, that one didn't, that one did." It sounds like a grim version of "duck, duck, goose."

When Reimus returned for the first time after the fire, a deputy manning a checkpoint warned her of the devastation. "But," she said, "nothing could prepare me." Forty-six of 47 homes on her street were gone.

"It looks like a regular neighborhood now," Reimus said, "but at the time. ..." Her voice trails off.

Like many of her neighbors, Reimus and her husband rebuilt. But getting the money from their insurance company wasn't easy. "We bought this house four months before it burned down," she said. "I told my agent I want full coverage. This was not cheapinsurance.net. I got the earthquake rider and extended replacement policy, which meant if there was a demand surge that increased rebuilding prices, you'll still have enough money."

Source: Austin American-Statesman