[NPMUG] A tragedy and a lesson today in my family

[Dave Sevick]

My 25 y/o daughter Megan woke us up this morning at 5AM with a call  
that her townhouse in Farmville, VA was on fire.  She was fine but  
standing outside, helpless and not able to retrieve anything as she  
described the fire to us on a borrowed cell phone  .....  saying she  
was absolutely helpless and in shock watching her belongings burn.

This included her MacBook and iPhone.  And "everything" including her  
wallet, car keys, etc.

At 4:30AM the alarm system went off and the 32 units in her building  
thought it was just another fire drill.  A loud bang on the door and  
urgent pleas by neighbors made the morning reality more clear to her.   
She grabbed her cat "Boo" and everything else was left behind.

By 5:30AM the rural fire departments "finally" arrived and began  
dousing the fire with hoses.   That was one full hour of watching her  
rather new style building burn.

Fast forward to 10AM and the Red Cross had arrived and provided food,  
shelter, and a special debit card for $150 cash.  She said they were  
awesome and very coordinated.

The neighbors and university students and faculty at Longwood U.  all  
came with money, food, and great support.

Fast forward to 1PM and the fire marshall allows them to get their  
most important items out after he clears the building for safe re- 
entry.  Megan sends a text message from her iPhone ( yeah! ) that the  
iPhone, MacBook and a precious record album collection ( of mine )  
were all OK and retrieved.  And no people or pets were harmed in the  
blaze.  Her losses included drenched furniture, her bed, and all the  
food.  Very lucky.

Megan is fine and the prayers of thanks and gratitude are deep and  
many ....  She drove home today and is home with us tonight.  And we  
thank God and all the great people of her town.  If you've ever had a  
scare like this ... it really gets you thinking and thanking.

=============

Now to the crux of why I'm sharing my daughter's story.

Megan had all her data on that MacBook and iPhone ....  and she was  
very lucky to get all back.  She had no backups and she knows  
better !  Ask her dad.

The building is now condemned with extensive water damage everywhere  
that fire did not burn.  She had years of academic work, patient  
information ( she is working on her masters degree in speech  
therapy ), family photos, email, etc ...

It takes a tragedy like this to really make you think hard about  
backing up offsite.  We talk about it here on the list  all the time.   
And my own family members are getting the message loud and clear.

At a minimum ... I recommend keeping important files on a flash drive  
in your pocket or on a key chain. The cost is about $25 for 8GB at  
WalMart.  You can even encrypt that data by creating a sparseimage and  
password protecting it with Apple Disk Utility:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1578

Next consider offsite automatic backup services such as:

Apple MobileMe iDisk  - http://www.apple.com/mobileme/features/idisk.html
Mozy - http://mozy.com/mac-pro
My Secure Backup  - http://www.patrickcranston.com/mysecurebackup/

All is well tonight !   She has a new place to live in the town of  
Farmville already thanks to generous folks at the University .... and  
is safe again.   Hope this helps someone.

Dave





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