Fires in Northern California

[VANCE]

Up here in Redwood Valley, yes we also had a fire, 440 homes lost. Thanks to my neighbor my place survived everything to the north and east of me is gone.
The county of Mendocino has posted signs on all the properties saying if you disturb the site Cal recycle will not due the state funded cleanup.
That said I worked in Cobb after the valley fire to help the residences rebuild. The main issue was after the cleanup most of the existing corner monuments were destroyed. I have contacted our county surveyor as I'm sure the sonoma county surveyors have done the same to locate and preserve these monuments before they get destroyed. I have begun to flag monuments for my neighbors who have lost everything. I encourage the rest of the surveying community to do the same.

I am will forever be thankfull to the family that not only saved my home they also saved my survey business and I'm going to try like hell to pay it forward.

[mpallamary]

I am sorry for your loss. I have several friends who lost their homes in the 2003 fires here in San Diego. One friend lost a family member. As a general rule, the insurance companies support monument recovery. When folks get to rebuilding, it can be a real pain if there are boundary conflicts or encroachments. If possible, it is good to preserve the location of questionable buildings/foundation to preserve non-conforming rights so the owners can rebuild in the same location. The insurance companies can create problems when considering new policies and coverage going forward. As I have mentioned, one of the biggest problems is associated with septic systems and preserving those rights. The county/city have to be flexible when issuing rebuild permits as, in many instances, updated codes can present conflicts and waivers need to be issued.

[mpallamary]

The county should adopt a grandfathering provision via an omnibus ordinance to avoid conflicts with building officials. The survey committee should participate and make some recommendations. There will be that planner who is going to take issue with building setbacks, absent some overall direction.

[marois]

NSPS Foundation (NSPSF) has a Disaster Relief Fund (DRF) for providing grants to surveyors who have suffered damage to their homes and/or businesses from a disaster. Through the Disaster Relief Fund, NSPSF assists surveyors, from all parts of the country affected by disasters of all kinds. This assistance is available, whether the applicant is a member of NSPS or not. Recently the foundation has given out approximately 25 grants to surveyors in Texas and Florida that suffer damage from the recent hurricanes. Anyone who has lost their homes due to the fires in California is encourage to apply for assistance. Attached is an application form, please feel free to contact me or NSPS staff with any questions

The DRF is funded solely through contributions from the many generous members of the professional surveying community. The funds in the DRF are used for no other purpose. Over the years the NSPSF has responded to numerous requests and distributed funds to surveyors in need. Time and again the profession has responded by replenishing the DRF. To date the NSPSF DRF has been able to respond to each request we have received.
The NSPSF DRF wants to continue to respond to every request we can. This will only be possible with the continued support of the surveying community and its network of surveying companies and corporate sponsors. If you have not donated to the DRF, please consider making a contribution today. If you have already donated and can extend your generosity please contribute again. NSPSF has been fortunate to have funds in place as needs arise. If ever member of CLSA, currently 1738, contributed $10.00, we could raise over $17,000.00. Donation can be made online at http://www.nsps.us.com/, or checks can be mailed to
NSPS Foundation
Attn: Disaster Relief
5119 Pegasus Court, Suite Q
Frederick, MD 21704

Armand Marois, NSPSF Trustee

[land butcher]

Just read an article in XYHT sounds like the State and FEMA went in first due to hazardous and toxic material removal and basically cleared the properties. I doubt they allowed anyone in to do monument preservation as it wasn't mentioned in the article and it stressed the hazardous materials. :(