Fire Restoration Help for Cher's Little Mtn Home

On Monday, October 21, while she was away at work, Cher's life, as she knew it, was devastatingly changed. Her home, her "haven," in the close-knit neighborhood called Little Mountain in San Bernardino, was heavily damaged by a dangerous, fast-moving wildfire that also took the homes of at least two of her neighbors and friends. Her dogs, Ducky and Silver, who were at home, were, thankfully, rescued by another brave neighbor/friend, who put his own life at risk. In a sudden, emotional upheaval, everything she knew to be "hers" and "safe," were taken from her. She's at a loss as to how she will recover from this. We see personal devastation every night on the news. People whose lives are ripped apart by hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, earthquakes, and we truly feel for them. But we have no idea what "recovery" for them actually looks like. We hear many of them say, "Everything I had is gone." How does someone move forward from that point? I am getting a close-hand look at that exact process. Cheryl Villars is my daughter. And, unfortunately, I live 1500 miles away from her in Minnesota.  Today, approximately 24 hours from the start of that fire, Cher only knows two things for sure. She is safe, and her dogs' lives have been spared. But after viewing the home following the retreat of fire crews, and speaking to insurance and fire restoration reps, here's what she's learning: >  She will likely not be going to work this week, meaning the loss of badly needed income > The cost to restore her home will likely exceed the insurance coverage she has > Her home is uninhabitable, and she will not be returning to it for approximately 1 year. Where will she live in the meantime? tonight? next week? for the next year?  How will she keep her dogs safe while she tends to the business of getting insurance claims and restoration started?  How is she going to be able to do everything all on her own?  Cher is not a stranger to disasters in her life, especially in the past 3 years. In August of 2015, she and her then boyfriend of eight years, bought the home in Little Mountain as a compromise - it was approximately midway between her work in Riverside and his work in Victorville. It needed work, and they had little extra income. But slowly they made progress in making it their own. Disaster #1 struck:  In July, 2016, there was another wildfire on Little Mountain. She was alone at home asleep with her dogs, and had to suddenly evacuate; her then boyfriend was at work. They had to huddle with neighbors to await the verdict as to whether their home had survived. Luckily, it had. There was smoke and landscape damage, but insurance helped restore it. Five of her neighbors were not so lucky. Disaster #2 struck days later: Her boyfriend decided, for his own reasons, to leave the relationship ... She was left devastated with a house they had struggled to afford together; now she had to try to keep it alone. She made adjustments and sacrifices, worked more hours, did what she needed to do, and was somehow able to keep things afloat. Disaster #3 struck a few months later: her house was broken into while she was home alone with the dogs; and then was burglarized during her absence a week later by the same individual. The San Bernardino police where taxed with higher profile crimes, so Cher basically had to gather the evidence herself. She had had security cameras installed after the first entry, which gave video evidence of the second entry. She also used her investigative instincts to make contact with the perp's estranged spouse, gathering information on his likely whereabouts. After handing all her gathered evidence to the police, they did apprehend the individual. However, none of her belongings were ever recovered. Disaster #4 struck at the end of 2017. The company she worked for decided to outsource her department, and she was laid off. Employment in southern California is extremely tight, in all job sectors. Cher was unable to readily find another job for which she was trained and experienced. She took on part-time work: bartender, notary public, law secretary, and even renting out spare rooms via AirBNB. These part-time jobs are what have kept her going, 6 to 7 days a week, but none of them offered benefits - no paid vacations, no health insurance, no 401(k), etc. This home was the only real asset of value that Cher had left. She knew she was in a fire-compromised area, and she wanted badly to move out, despite the fact that she loved her neighborhood and her neighbors. She was trying to get the home fixed up and "saleable." She had even taken advantage of a low-income grant program from the local utility company to make her home more energy efficient with efficiency improvements, including attic insulation (which is now all lying, soaking wet, on the floor of her burned out home). She was so close to putting it on the market, selling it and taking her equi