Fires and Donations????

[Anonymous]

I'd like to help with the fires but I'm seeing a bunch of people online just asking for personal donations though PayPal, venmo, GoFundMe, etc.

The stories are heartbreaking -- they lost their houses and everything, they have no insurance and they can't pay their mortgages. They need $25,000 just to survive the next few months. Most of them also forgot all their clothes, laptops, and medicines and they can't get health insurance to.cover medicine again.

Are these real? How can you have a mortgage but no insurance? Why don't any of them have insurance? Why, when we have been on days of evacuation warning, did they have not anything packed? Why won't insurance cover the lost medicine?

I am nervous that these are all scams but some of the people posting on Facebook begging for thousands of dollars are friends and acquaintances so I cannot imagine that they are all lying about the amount they need and $20,000 has been the lowest amount.

If each person who lost a house couldn't get fire insurance and needs $20,000, how are we going to help all these people? Or where should I donate and what do they need except money? I don't have a lot of money but I could donate things. I do not want to be scammed but I don't want all these people to be homeless.

[Anonymous]

No, a LOT of people do not have insurance. I know a lot of people whose homes burned down 3 years ago in 2017 and they were fully covered with millions of dollars but they were not insured the next year as a result -- insurances lost a LOT of money. They were told then very explicitly that they either needed to put fire insurance in escrow to self-insure or they needed to pay the premium to get fire insurance from the few companies who still offered it. To save money short-term but with the lack of foresight, they just rebuilt with the insurance money and spent any extra and now their house burned down again (anyone could see that coming). If they didn't have the money to acquire the insurance, they should have sold the land cheap and taken the insurance money to buy a home out of state where money goes farther. These people are all idiots though and now they have their hands out again and it is California so they are getting hand outs in the nanny state and not learning at all so they will rebuild their homes again. Rinse, repeat. We will be paying for these same people all over again in a couple years. Mark my words.

Meanwhile, DO NOT GIVE. If you want to help these fires and people in general, only donate to the Red Cross. They are helping with the fires but they help a lot of people. They are an established and trustworthy nonprofit. A lot of people are giving to these fires right now so giving just to the fires is short-sighted. Give to the Red Cross which helps for all disasters.

[Anonymous]

Donate today!

It is so important to pay it forward.

I'm in Monterey and so many people have lost their homes. Please click and give whatever you can!

https://www.gofundme.com/mvc.php?route=homepage_norma/search&term=Carmel%20fire

[Anonymous]

I'm in the donate camp. I don't have anything to give but I encourage everyone else to give as much as they can.