1. You might have heard of the biggest sinkhole ever, that recently opened up in Florida. Mr. R. works with the guy who's place is now about 50 feet under. He and his wife left for work and 30 minutes later it happened.
He had his info stored on a backup drive - gone of course, along with everything else.
Purely by luck, there was one small corner of his office that stuck out on top and after a few days a crew was able to retrieve his computer, his boat and trailer, that's all. The day after, the sinkhole increased in size and finished eating his house.
They are now living in an older RV which was parked in front of the garage. His wife was able to convince one of the emergency crew to drive it off the premises (on the day it happened), just in time before the sinkhole widened and access was lost forever.
2. I watched our place go up in flames when I was three, we escaped with nothing but the clothes on our back.
3. When we lived in Houston, we made it unscathed through Hurricane Charley. Drove up to see the damage at the beach (near Galveston) the following day, a whole row of homes near the beach was completely destroyed to smithereens, there was furniture and even a toilet strewn for a couple of miles along the beach.
I'm with Sailor Sam - it's good to be prepared and since we live in Hurricane country, a get the hell out of Dodge bag for evacuation and a get home bag for whatever. Copies and certified copies in different places.
Anyway - just having your important documents stored in the house is not a good idea. It also seems like common sense to have one designated person who has your full information or at least access to your documents or knows where to find them, in case of your demise.