Forwarded message:

Date: Sat, 9 Nov 1996 20:53:02 -0800 From: nobody@cypherpunks.ca (John Anonymous MacDonald)

Suppose Bob lives in an apartment complex. By accident the whole building burns down.

Bob manages to escape, but all his papers, including passport, IDs, credit cards, acount numbers, etc etc gets destroyed.

What can Bob do? Would the government help him?

It seems like he'd be in a really unfavorable position...

I was there 2 years ago. The Red Cross is about the only group you can count on other than family, friends and a church (if you happen to belong to one). Getting another drivers license was a easy operation. Head down to the local DPS office and request a replacement card for a lost license. The titles and such for property and auto were tedious but not impossible. I didn't need to show anything other than my drivers license and pay the requisite fees to obtain new copies of the deeds. In general the governmental types of documents and such were easy to replace. I personaly had all the necessary copies of the documents I needed within a month or so. The personal items were impossible to replace and caused the most emotional turmoil. In many parts of the country the Red Cross is delepeted both in operating funds and volunteers. If you can, please consider giving them your support. I personaly didn't use them but both my roomies did. Jim Choate