In preparing for disasters, such as fire, flood, earthquake, and tornadoes, we usually think of survival food and water.
Or perhaps a survival pack kit, survival supplies, disaster tools and other items that we would need.
These are all very important and we definitely need this preparation.
But there is another forgotten item we need added to our survival pack kit or supplies.
Several years ago, my sister and family had a house fire and lost everything.
When it came to insurance, it was very difficult to think of things to list that they had lost.
So after that happened, I went through our house and wrote down furniture, appliances and everything I could think of.
I took pictures of each room, making sure I had a picture of everything in that room, and placed them in an envelope and put into the list book.
I have continued to update the changes all of these years.
I kept it in my bank box until I got a heavy fire file for my office.
A few years later, my daughter had her purse stolen.
She went through a very trying time to replace her personal cards and other items.
It set me to thinking, would I even remember what all I had in my purse? Would I even have the phone numbers to call to replace them? So I took everything out of the card holder of my purse and laid on my copier and photo copied them.
I do this at least once a year or more as some things change.
I keep them in my fire file, so I can find them quickly in an emergency.
Recently, an even better idea occurred to me.
Why not scan these things on to a flash drive and include other important papers? Since I am a Senior Citizen, I have gone to great lengths to have my current will, living will, where my assets are, my burial fund and everything I think my children will need when I pass on, all together in my fire file.
A flash drive is a small item and may be placed in a survival pack.
If you need to leave in a hurry when a disaster occurs, You can quickly grab the survival pack and go.
You can make copy a of the drive and place in a bank box, just in case of a disaster while away from home and all is destroyed.
Below is a partial list of papers that could be included: • Drivers license • Birth certificate • Social Security Card • Medicare Card • Passport • Bank Account Documents • Insurance information (car, house, medical, life) • Credit Cards • Marriage certificates • Medical records • Emergency Contacts • Will and living will (Legal firm where originals are kept) • Any other important documents that would be difficult to replace • Any of the above documents for spouse or children if applies It is also possible to purchase a USB drive that is encrypted and zip the files in a password protected folder to keep it from falling into the wrong hands.
However, you would have to make sure you remember the password and give it to whomever would need it after you are gone.
Also, you need to remember to update it as needed.
The list of house items with pictures, items in billfold or purse, as well as all personal papers could be put on one flash drive and placed in the survival pack and one in a bank box.
Some day we may be glad we did!