Yeah, I need a PO box. The wait time is about 1.5 hours in line to get one. It's a different line to get mail, another 1.5 hours. I haven't found time to spend that long in line yet.
D*mn! That hurts. Not to be unfeeling or snarky here, but I'm assuming you and yours escaped without harm? If so, everything else is dross. (Been there, done that, no t-shirt.) Still to lose everything, particularly the images. I guess I'd tell myself, Get shooting boy. Your work obviously didn't stand up to time and the wind.
It's impossible for me to back up my work. (I live at the end of "barbwire" Internet and a bank vault is many miles away. Can't image trying to maintain a removable hard drive.) Get the PO box. For camera, I highly recommend the 80D. (Perhaps Canon referb Xmas sales?) I picked one up last year and have been stunned by it capabilities. Buy a 70-200 or 24-70 used, either aperture. Don't waste your $$ on cheap tools. You'll have to replace them.
So hug those dear to you. Look up at the sky. Then get at it. And Vaya con dios.
OntheRez
Not to suggest any personal integrity here, but I did look at my arsenal. No duplicates, and every piece works for a living - though some not very often. The exception would be the Samyang 14mm f/2.8. Would be a weird world if it all looked like that. And you all know something else? Real communities care for their own. Thoughts?
If I needed a way to store backups and couldn't use the cloud and had no place nearby to store it, I would use something like this to store my backup with encryption, then I could store this anywhere on planet earth, like a family member's yard, etc.
There are various products like this. Use an SSD smaller footprint drive and storage container even. Sure it sounds like pirate ships and buried treasure, but anything is better than losing years of memories.
There are even services where you can pack whatever you can into a box of a certain size, you ship it to the service, and they store that box for you for around $3.00 a month for the small boxes, like 13x16x12. If you need the box back, schedule it to be shipped back to you. A box that size can store alot of personal belongings, harddrives, etc. I think storing several SSD of several TB of data for long-term storage is cheaper this way than even using Amazon Glacier. Basically you are renting 2 cubic feet of space in a warehouse for around $3 a month.
Sorry for your loss mate but as said above gear and what not are replaceable people aren’t. I’m in Santa Rosa so last year when shit hit the fan. We gtfo. Left over 15k worth of paintball gear plus probaly another 10-15k in car parts and tools. Got lucky tho. We got back and there where massive cinders around the house with burned spots in the lawn. But if you need a place to have stuff shipped or store gear or whatever my doors are open I don’t mind driving stuff up as needed. New to this fourm so it may seem weird. But. Again best of luck and stay safe
And you all know something else? Real communities care for their own. Thoughts?