October Preparedness Thought

The preparedness challenge for October is getting your important documents in order. You should put copies in a secure safe place you can get access to if needed to leave quickly, this can be paper copies put in a waterproof Ziploc bag or electronic copies of your documentation. Your originals and your copies should not be stored in the same place. Here is a list of suggested items you would want in your documentation package.

• Home Inventory
  
• Insurance Policies - house, life, car, property, boat, ... Check that your policy covers you for disasters and that the limits are adequate since the last time you reviewed it.
  
• Wills - make sure you review and update your will occasionally too
  
• Property Deeds - to prove you own the house and land
  
• Titles to vehicles
  
• Tax Returns - first 2 pages of state and federal returns from the past 3 years
  
• Contracts - business you are doing or having done
  
• Stocks and Bonds
  
• Bank Account Numbers
  
• Credit Card Numbers and company phone numbers
  
• Driver's Licenses
  
• Social Security card
  
• Health Insurance Cards
  
• Prescriptions - medicines and eyeglasses
  
• Immunization records
  
• Phone Numbers - relatives, employer, insurance agent, doctor, pastor, financial advisor, repair contractor
  
• Birth certificates
  
• Marriage certificates
  
• Passports
  
• Family Photos - most likely irreplacable so keep negatives remotely
  
• Cash - keep $100 or so in your emergency kit
  

Just to give you an example how important your documentation is, after the Charolette fire in Pocatello, no one was allowed into the fire damaged area (except emergency personnel) unless they could show proof or residency. They had to have their drivers license or something else that showed picture and address.
Documentation is something we probably all take a bit for granted, (how often are we really going to need it all put together) but extremely important to have in the case of an emergency.
I have to say even I am not jumping for super joy excitement when I think of the process of gathering all our document together, but I know it is very important and could be the difference in an emergency. I know we will all be grateful we have put the work in to getting this done in case we ever need to rely on them in an emergency.
I challenge everyone to gather your documents and get them in order this month. We will all be one step closer to being ready and prepared for anything. And that should make us feel more at peace.