Another big help is to arrange for storage of things that will be donated, until they have the slack to sort through and see what they can use, and a place to put it.

A HUGE help is for someone with business experience to help on the insurance job. Being the administrator on a fire claim is nearly a fulltime job, and it's hard to do what you need to do on a daily basis for your own recovery and getting on with life, while docmenting all you lost. You tend to miss noticing things you should have claimed, or to let slide things that are hard to document. But a no-nonsense admin can cut through a lot of the crap and do a lot of the legwork and paperwork. The insurance companies respond to this-- because they know that if it goes to court you will be quite well prepared.

Kids especially need something of their own to cling to during recovery-- something soft and clean and very personal. And adults need to know that you really do want to know how they are, and that a one-minute reply that turns into a crying jag of some duration is relaxedly OK with you.

~Susan

(Former Red Cross manager, and fire survivor too)