How to face the economic implications of a Mega-Disater.

I'm asking help from all my ATS brothers and sisters. Many times we discussed about survival techniques, but I believe we never wondered how can we manage these kind of problems.

In order to have an idea about what to do in case of a mega-disaster, I would like to formulate the following questions. To anyone who knows what really happened in Japan, Chile, Haiti, USA (Katrina) or any other similar, please share the information.

Questions:

Under a situation where there are no banks or financial institutions, what happens with your financial obligations, do you still have to pay your bills....how?

If your job place get destroyed or unable to reach, do you have the right to claim for unemployment beneffits or similar?

If you pay rent, do you still have to pay if the place is partialy affected, no water or electricity (owner could say it's not his fault)?

Thanks.

reply to post by Trueman


Good questions - S&F!

I've always wondered this type of thing myself. For example, if the proverbial hit the fan and there was WWIII, would I still have to pay my mortgage? I know if it got really bad, paying my mortgage would be the least of my troubles, but what if it got to WWII levels for example.

I've actually tried to find out what happened in WWII as a starter for ten, but it seems that at the time most people in the UK rented rather than owned and had minimal debt. Not really reflective of my situation, I'm unhappy to say.

Sorry I can't help answer the questions, but I look forward if someone can offer us the answers.

Cheers Trueman

The landlord in Biloxi who showed up two weeks after Katrina
brought a roofing crew with him to start work on the Apartments Immediately.

Being the only non hispanic in the complex I was standing in the circle of some of the older ones
when they, hats in hand, asked him if he could give them a couple of weeks to make the rent
as there had been no work. He immediately reddened in the face and started lecturing
them about how much the roofing crews we costing him, and how much damage
had been done.

Now mind you, at this time I hadn't seen TV for two weeks, nor internet,
or anything besides local radio broadcasts on where water was.

I didn't like the way he was treating them, but I knew that
saying anything wouldn't make a difference.

So I started grinning like a fool and just kept my eyes locked on his baloney sandwich he had.

Still lecturing and irritable he noticed me standing shoulder to shoulder with the hispanics
and said "What are you looking at!" At which point I turned my smile to his eyes and said
"That sandwich looks good. I haven't had meat for two weeks."

All the red left his face and his shoulders sagged.
He turned and yelled at his work crew, "HAY!
can we get some sandwiches over here
for these people." And then he looked
at all the Hispanics for the first time
as people and said "Ok, you can
have another month."

The appartment complex was 4 blocks from the beach and was the only building left standing for hundreds of miles, all the way to Waveland, MS.



David Grouchy

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/95db615e6ec9.png[/atsimg]
This is waveland, not Biloxi.

My advice if you are going to go through a mega disaster
find a good catholic community and dwell in the middle of them.
I figure all the Mamacitas were on their knees all that night and pulled us through.

The next day they had a small fire next to a rock,
were slapping out tortias and cooking them,
and in the evenings the men would turn
on a truck and play salsa music
while people played cards
and talked. I provided
the potato chips.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/1eb551ff0140.png[/atsimg]

Biloxi, MS after Katrina


David Grouchy

Originally posted by Trueman

Questions:

Under a situation where there are no banks or financial institutions, what happens with your financial obligations, do you still have to pay your bills....how?

If your job place get destroyed or unable to reach, do you have the right to claim for unemployment beneffits or similar?

If you pay rent, do you still have to pay if the place is partialy affected, no water or electricity (owner could say it's not his fault)?

Thanks.

For your first question, a lot of your financial obligations would probably still be in place, though writing to those parties and explaining the situation should buy some time to get things in order. Keep in mind homeowner's/renter's insurance and car insurance (though the "Act of God" clause could be a problem).

Not sure how unemployment benefits would work (might be hard to collect immediately if local infrastructure is heavily affected), but agencies such as Red Cross usually provide vouchers/assistance to help cover immediate needs shortly after a disaster (though they'll be swamped with requests and trying to avoid fraudsters at the same time).

As far as rent goes, I know that the landlord is supposed to cover costs to stay elsewhere if they have to ask you to vacate while they repair a home/apartment, and prorate your rent (at least in California). I would think something similar should occur in the event of a disaster, but finding a place might be difficult, and keep in mind their livelihood just got nailed, too, so they'll be hurting somewhat too.

Overall, unless you're heavily tied down to an area hit by a disaster, it might be worth relocating afterwards.

Originally posted by notsofunnyguy

but agencies such as Red Cross usually provide vouchers/assistance to help cover immediate needs shortly after a disaster.

I never got a dime from the Red Cross,
as I was running my restaurant, the only one open for 20 miles,
and feeding the entire world every day for weeks.

Many of my employees stopped comming to work though
so they could stand in line all day and get a free $50 from the Red Cross.


David Grouchy

reply to post by davidgrouchy


Great story David, a quick question if I might - is Waveland the former home of Jefferson Davis?
For some reason it looks familiar.

OP - Many of your questions might be answered by what kinds of insurance you have or in the contracts you may have signed, Horrible reading that stuff, I know.

If your bank is not functioning anywhere in the entire country you do not have to pay them until they are up and running again.

If the bank you own money to (bank A), is functioning any where, you still have to pay. Even if the bank where you have your money (bank B), is not functioning.

With the Internet I find it hard to believe a bank cannot function anymore.


If your place of employment is put out of business for a significant period, you can file for unemployment.
If you cannot get there because you car washed out to sea, that’s your problem.


If you pay rent:
You and the landlord will work something out. He can’t rent a partially damaged building. And you can’t be expected to pay full rent on a place you can’t use to its fullest. But if you two can’t come to an agreement and you pay nothing, he can still evict in court. Assuming the judge will proceed under the given conditions. He may withhold any judgment due to disaster circumstances. Judges really do come down hard on landlords in most cases. I have been a landlord and I know the cards are always stacked against the landlord. He must have all his t’s crossed and his I’s dotted to win in court. If he accepts any money towards rent it is considered he has been paid in full.

This is a very good question. I have been looking at disasters like Japan, Haiti, Katrina, etc lately and wondering what-if the same level of destruction happens in my local area. No services like good water or electricity for weeks, no services such as banking or supermarkets, etc.

You can have thousands of cash sitting in the bank, but if the ATMs are down and the local banks are closed (or even destroyed) what will you do?

Originally posted by Asktheanimals

Great story David, a quick question if I might - is Waveland the former home of Jefferson Davis?
For some reason it looks familiar.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/19e9b62f1f62.png[/atsimg]

Here is the Jefferson Davis home of Beauvoir.


David Grouchy

Thanks to all, I've been reading all your posts and I learned a lot.

Today I asked my supervisor/boss about it. According to him, in case of a disaster I can claim for unemployment benefits only if none of the workers are able to reach the place, if only one can make it, everybody loose the right to claim for benefits.

Regarding the rent, I think I'll just make a check and give it to the landlord, since there are no banks or finacial institutions, he won't be able to deposit it, that will give buy me some more time. Asking around, one strong answer I had is that the lanlord would have the right to ask for the payment anyway, denying any responsability for a natural disaster.

There are banks where you can photo the front and back of the check and deposit it via the web. So if the landlord drives to a Starbucks in the next town you could get caught passing a bad check.

Originally posted by samkent
There are banks where you can photo the front and back of the check and deposit it via the web

Really??...I didn't know that, can you tell which ones?