Answer depends a lot on why the house went down and how severe the damage is. If due to major fire, flood or tornado (the main risks in my area) then the plan is to try to recover a few personal things and let insurance cover the rest. Cleaning up and recovering things after these types of events is very time consuming and not terribly effective. For lesser types of damage it might be worth trying to stay around but the local authorities may decide to keep you and everyone else out to prevent looting (at least that would be the theory).

- Eric