Happy Anniversary I guess… December 3, 2019 marks 5 years since my home in Regina Beach blew up. In this blog, I want to share my story on when disaster strikes. My hope is that this tale will highlight the importance of insurance.
When Disaster Strikes: What Happened?
Well, the house two doors up from mine exploded. This was after a leak in a nearby underground pipe filled it with natural gas. Unfortunately, the blast demolished that home and damaged several others. This was to the point they had to be bulldozed because they were unsalvageable.
A better way to describe it for me would be an implosion, not an explosion I guess. My home was down the hill from the explosion. There was also another home adjacent to mine that took a lot of the initial blast. So what happened to my home? Well, the shock wave travelled past my house. Then there was an implosion as the air rushed back in to fill the void where the explosion had occurred. This formed a vacuum of sorts there. That is what I suspect did the real damage to my home anyway.
The walls had all buckled and bulged, the ceiling inside the home had partially collapsed – all the doors and windows were blown out, or in some cases, in.
Miracles Happen: Safe & Equipped With Insurance
The miracle is that nobody was killed or seriously injured. My wife actually came into Regina that day with me to visit the kids, so she wasn’t home at the time. Our dogs, a pomeranian/papillion cross and a wiener dog both survived, although they were never the same. After the explosion, one had to always be able to see where everyone in the house was and the other had to be physically touching you at all times.
On the practical side, I had good insurance. I had the right policy and the right optional coverages that made recovery as smooth an experience as it could be. Although some things couldn’t be replaced, they were just that – things. All those things that really mattered were safe and sound.
That one event ultimately shaped my future. When the time came to transition from my radio career to something else, I decided I wanted to be an Insurance Broker. For whom? Well, the same brokerage that put my policy in place – Campbell & Haliburton. To me, it’s about trying to help prepare people for that moment that you never expect to come. That moment when you are looking at what is left of your home and you realize – I don’t even have a toothbrush…
Sincerely,
Dave Arnold
Photo credit: CJME