With tens of thousands of homes burned to the ground, California residents are indeed suffering. We’ve seen plenty of groups coming together, like teams of food cart vendors handing out food, practically nonstop. But emergency housing is another huge issue. The Los Angeles area was already critically short on housing, so where will these folks go? Are there RV rentals for fire victims?
Enter El Monte RV Rentals, who says it is “deeply committed to supporting impacted families, first responders, and our communities as they navigate this difficult time.” How is the big rental company responding?
RV rentals for fire victims—Make a reservation?
An LA area TV station ran a glossy video spot a few days ago. Looking all the world like an advertisement, with a sales person gushing about the “beautiful” features, El Monte lets you know you can rent or buy one of their brand-new motorhomes. The spot suggests you can get away from the devastation for a few days. Alternatively, they make it sound like you can just roll the rig onto your devastated property. And with the on-board generator, you’ll be perfectly “comfy.”
20% off normal rates—but a steep rental rate
El Monte makes the pitch that they’ll work with your insurance company, or that they’ll offer rentals at 20% off normal rates. Just what are those normal rates? We followed the direction received and logged on to El Monte’s site, trying to make a reservation.
If we didn’t mind booking some of the larger rigs, we could rent for as low as $1,832 to as high as $2,924 for two weeks. Need more time? A month’s rent will set you back anywhere between $4,692 to as high as $7,765. Yes, that discount sounds nice, but don’t forget, then you’ll need to add sales tax on the bill.
For those hit by the fire who are fortunate enough to have insurance on their losses, maybe their insurance company can get a better deal. But in the weeks before the devastating fires broke out, news broke out that the issuing companies had canceled thousands of home insurance policies.
No reliable statistics are available at this time, but the outlook isn’t good. No insurance? High-priced RVs to rent? And just how soon will authorities allow folks to move RVs onto burned-over properties—or will they even allow it?
We wish we had happier news to share. We will keep all readers posted as we track down more information. Please know the hearts of RVtravel.com staff go out to the California fire victims.
##RVT1192b
Thank you, Russ and Tina! How unfortunate and tragic for all those displaced, particularly if their home owner’s insurance had been canceled, AND they lost their home. Sometimes I can convince myself that life is orderly and easy, but this disaster in California reminds me that life is often messy and difficult. I pray for those affected. Have a great week and safe travels! 🙂
Indeed Neal, it is tough to process the level of absolute devastation in these cities and to these families.
In Vegas/Henderson, our executive airport is filled with the private jets of the wealthy and many of the mediocre hotels are at occupancy with mothers and fathers looking for work because 4 hours west of us, the homes they own(ed) and the places they worked are ashes.
Unlike a natural disaster, this human caused disaster, which was so very avoidable is NUTS. The level of pure incompetence is shocking to my tiny brain. Horrific.
Happy trails Neal. 😎
Good luck with your upcoming “show” seminars, have some fun. 👍
Thank you for the additional information, Cancelproof! I don’t think that I can comprehend the extent of the destruction of property and the lives of so many people. So very sad, and, based on what you’ve added to the discussion, so many unintended consequences. 🙁
Thank you, Cancelproof! I will try. It has been 30 years since I last taught, been in front of a classroom, so it won’t be automatic. I do think Friday will be the worst of the three. I guess we’ll see what “worst” equals. 😉 Have a great weekend and safe travels!
Sounds like the RV dealer is trying to take advantage of an already disastrous situation.
The dealer can write off any money lost during the lease time period.
To Cancelproof: What could have been done to avoid the disaster? Where is the incompetence? How would you have handled the situation? Water ran out. No hillside community has enough water nor enough flow capacity for a situation like what has occurred. No city has the financial resources to create and maintain a fire suppression crew with equipment large enough to handle a fire storm that may never come. No agency can counter the effect of drought or wind. Chaparral and grasses had grown abundantly from two wet winters and now were very dry, almost explosively flammable, after eight months of no rain. No forest involved. Wide firebreaks would not have helped, not even roads and highways.
Pacific Pallisades reservoir….. look it up.
Water pump, heard of those? Clean underbrush before it burns. $14 billion bond approved by voters 10 years ago for water magmt. Look it up. Zero work done yet. 4 dams blown up to save a smelt. Trillions of gallons diverted into the pacific…. was the ocean getting too low? Gimme a break.
Call for water tenders ahead of the fire…. you, know…. just in case. Station them in areas of high concern.
I’m curious where you are getting your information? I’m not being snarky…I’m seriously concerned you are not getting the facts and that should concern you too!
Gary,
Really? Do you really want to get into it? I’ve got 20 objective facts I could make but I’ll leave it with just one and it’s common sense.
$17 million cut from LAFD budget last year. So your saying more firemen and more firetrucks would not have made any difference? None? No difference at all. If that is your assertion, then why are firefighters from several other states and countries now fighting these fires? If more firefighters were not needed last week to get an early handle on these fires when it was zero percent contained, why now? Use some logic Gary! More firefighters fighting a fire is good. It’s very simple logic.
Want the other 19 factual points?
Amen! Why-oh-why would you cut firefighting budgets when you live in one of the most fire prone areas of the country? Schools and other structures in the tornado prone areas, and hurricane prone areas are built to withstand and provide shelter, just in case. Fire departments are also just in case. You need to build and fund them to fit the case. Maybe we saved the homes of the smelt, but now our homes smelt of smoke and fire. Let me weigh the difference here?
Yup. Loud and clear my friend. Not trying to be rude to Gary here either, just frustrated at incompetence. The Santa Ynez reservoir that services the fire hydrants in Pacific Pallisades was emptied 11 months ago to replace the tarp that covers it. I wonder if those 117,000,000 gallons of water would have helped out? They did run out the first night at 3:00am.
Maybe we should buy the new tarp before we empty the UPHILL reservoir used for fighting fires IN A DROUGHT.
$50mm earmarked to “T-Proof” the state…. how about something to fireproof the state.
Cancel, I agree conditionally with your points if dollars already collected were already being spent wisely but is this really a budget issue?
Governments, business and citizens go over budget all the time so putting budget ahead of public safety strikes me as a horrible excuse if false, a deplorable act if true.
Agreed. The most basic task of our elected officials is public safety. Nothing else should ever be funded until our LEO and Fire Services are equipped and staffed. Then comes everything else like transportation and infrastructure, keeping in mind that water infrastructure for the firefighters falls into category 1.
Everything after that is negotiable but I am of the mind that every dollar spent on pet projects like safe injection sites, parades, T-proofing, homelessness, covering legal costs for illegals, trans-awareness month, etc., comes from public safety.
Every taxpayer should expect, without condition, for water to come out of the hydrants EVERY SINGLE TIME.
Corporate greed.
I wonder if anyone else has seen the Facebook post about the 60 fire engines coming down from the northern states to assist in the fire fight and were stopped in Sacramento for not having smog certificates! I personally don’t do facebook but my wife does. Since it’s posting we haven’t heard or seen anything about it since.
Hi, Mike. Fake “news.” Ugh! Google “fire trucks turned away from California”. Have a good afternoon. 😀 –Diane at RVtravel.com
Mike, I don’t believe that. Let’s remember, anyone can post on Facebook and anyone who sees their post can share it. Facebook is among the worst places to get the news. And now Zuckerberg is doing away with fact-checking on the platform. That man has done society no favor by creating Facebook, which originated as a way for Harvard males to rate hot chicks on campus. He’s a joke, but sadly he is having a huge, negative effect on society.
I don’t think Zuckerberg did away with “fact checking”. He is doing away with censorship. He claims he was ‘pressured’ to censor content that went against the adminstration, by the administration.
Bang on Chuck. I have also used yesterday’s quote of the day about Abe Lincoln and the internet on my email signature line. Absolutely priceless, and unfortunately 100% true.
Here is the thing, my north country brethren, “objective truth” is no longer fashionable. It has been replaced with the “my truth” phrase. Who will be the arbiter of facts? Who approves the “truth” versus the “my truth”? Some gender confused 23 year old?
As a free speech absolute-ist, I can discern crazy talk from objective reality on my own. If someone wants to buy a bridge in Queens, sight unseen off the internet, that’s on them. The gene pool will improve vastly in time.
If someone believes the firetruck story, same thing.
My truth, your truth, her truth, his truth….. who decides?
On balance Chuck, you are correct but truthfully what he did was get rid of fact checkers that simply cencored facts they didnt like and admitted fulthroat that FB was no longer a government censorship arm. He said outloud that FB had been coerced by the Biden administration to shut down negative stories. His admission that he censored 1st amendment speech, including factual speech by professional lifelong journalists on behalf of a political narrative is far scarier to me than a silly firetruck story.
As a journalist, FB’s actions at the direction of Gov’t 2016-2024 is what should make you shudder.
Well said! Hope all is well CP! 😃
🤸♂️🤸♀️ every day. Backatcha.
As a retired firefighter, I can attest that fire engines don’t drive hundreds of miles in a short period of time. No engine was turned away it was Callie ensuring the engines were still in good working condition to be deployed. It had nothing to do with emissions. Just safety.
I wonder if folks can peruse the rv rental pages.. I’ve seen them on rvshare.com Perhaps that would be a better solution than this company?
Always someone out to screw you in/after a disaster …
National Indoors RV Centers (NIRVC) has announced that displaced California homeowners with an RV can come to either their Las Vegas or Phoenix facilities and get a free hookup site, as space permits. Requestors do not have to be current/former customers. Call first to make arrangements and confirm if any sites are still available.
They did the same thing at some eastern locations with hurricane victims.
Kudos to Brett and his team for offering “no strings attached” help.