Cart |
Ready
Main Entrees
Outdoor Preparedness Sale
The documents you’ll need in an emergency
Having documentation during an emergency can be very helpful and sometimes essential! There are certain identification, insurance and personal documents that you’ll wish you had during an emergency. Here are a few things to consider while collecting your important papers:
How to store
It’s pretty easy to digitize your records to fit them all onto a hard drive or flash drive. If you choose not to go this route, you can always keep copies of these documents in a water-proof folder. You might consider creating a master list (or Excel spreadsheet) to track all of your documents. There is a great tutorial by Lifehacker on how to do this.
However you store your documents, you’ll want to make sure that they are housed in a weather-resistant container of some sort.
Where to store
During an emergency, you’ll want to know where this information is. We recommend that you put this information in a 72-hour kit. By placing this information on one of the exterior pockets, it will be easy to access if you need to get to it quickly.
You can also make copies to be placed in your emergency supplies at home.
Types of documents
Identification papers
Copies of documents like your passport, driver’s license, social security card, birth certificates, and others are important to include in your emergency kit.
Insurance papers
If a natural disaster struck, how would you get in contact with your insurance company? It’s a good idea to have contact information for your insurance company and bank. You should include account numbers.
Be sure to include photos, descriptions and other documentation about the items in your home. Some families have even taken video tours of their home to show proof of them owning certain items in their home.
You could also include copies of house or property ownership if that becomes disputed.
Personal documents
While preparation might not protect certain family heirlooms, you can also take precautions against loosing certain family valuables like marriage certificates, treasured photos, family history records or old family keepsakes.
Some families have completely digitized their records to fit on a single flash drive or hard drive.
Medical documents
Making copies of vital medical records is a great thing to include in emergency plans. These could include allergies, prescriptions that you are on, immunizations, medical conditions, etc.
Contact information
You should have the names and phone numbers of a few vital contacts – a family relative that lives out of state, your insurance contact, etc. You can also include information on who people should contact if you or your pack is found.
List
Here is a list of some of the documents that you should consider:
Insurance
|
Medical
Identification
Personal
|
So what other ideas have you found helpful? What records do you keep? How do you keep them?
I did not look at the tutorial yet so if any of this is redundant, i apologize. I am in the process of doing this now and find it time consuming with all the other responsibilities to take care of. A great thing is to have a good checklist and keep doing it in small amounts. After i scan each one, they all get saved in the same folder. That way when i’m done it’s easier to transfer it. I plan on saving it in several places: hard disc, thumb drive, and an on line storage program like DropBox. As a good reminder, if you store the information on a thumb drive, get one that is password protected. Also, a hard copy goes in the family Go Kit just in case. There is also a good App for the iPhone called Disaster Prep from the Emergency Response system for San Louis Obispo CA. Good check lists, reminders, and a password protected storage space for your medical and personal documents. Worth looking into and it’s free.
March 17th, 2012 at 2:36 pmI want to thank you for putting this information out there for the “Prepper” crowd for free. I think it is most generous that you help the out the folks that recently joined our community. God Bless You!
July 5th, 2012 at 1:48 pmThis is a great list which I passed on to our prepper group also. The only thing I would add is info on your hairy kids like a picture of each one, vet records, license numbers, and micro chip numbers in case you get separated.
March 9th, 2013 at 5:12 amKeep up the good work and keep those great ideas and info segments coming.
Please do not put your personal documents on line, anywhere!!!
Dropbox is not a secure location. The same can be said for your phones and other mobile devices.
If you are putting them on your personal system make sure you encrypt the file(s). TrueCrypt is one good tool. Always type in the password do not auto save/enter it on any system. Make sure someone you trust has the user name and password in case you fall off the planet.
March 9th, 2013 at 7:18 amBe sure to include current photos of your children in your emergency kit…and keep them current!
March 9th, 2013 at 7:19 amThumb drives are indeed a great idea for scanned documents, pictures, medical records etc. But, being an overly redundant prepper myself, I also have all the same info stored on CD-R/DVD’S and hard copies of the essential physical items (documents that some people/institutions would require originals containing an original seal(s) like deeds, marriage certs etc.) in a small or appropriately sized fire safe, I.e a “sentry safe”. May seem overly protective but, God forbid, should your preps get caught in a fire situation like fast moving wildfires, car fire etc. this just offers another layer of protection. Small fire safes are cheap and easy to carry or pack in a “go bag”. Also, external hard drives have come down greatly in price and offer a lot more storage space for large amounts of electronically stored docs. However, electronically stored docs can be rather hard to retrieve in the event of an emp type scenario where computers are useless, hence the fire safe or other element proof rugged container. Just food for thought.
March 9th, 2013 at 7:35 amA note to Irish-7, Debbie B., and others:
Instead of being referred to as a “Survivalist” or a “Prepper”, I prefer the politically correct term of “Evolutionarily Advanced Self-Reliant Community Citizen”.
March 9th, 2013 at 8:20 amJeff, I like to think I’m an Assured Self Supporter… you can call me an ASS. LOL!
Ready Store, I always appreciate these types of articles, they all provide more food for thought, more help in preparedness. Keep ‘em coming!
March 9th, 2013 at 8:45 amProfessional certification documents! If the Stuff hits the fan, we might have no way of proving our knowledge base! I’m a Certified Professional Midwife, and my license and CPM documentation is going with me, as well as all my certs for Amateur Radio (I’m an Extra) and FEMA certs(I’m deployable in case of communications emergency) that’s a lot of work to have gone thru, if I can’t prove it….
March 9th, 2013 at 9:03 amThank you for a great reminder and resources to get our documents and other information together and in a safe place.
Jeff – EASRCC, hmmm that doesn’t make a catchy word.
March 9th, 2013 at 9:19 amI recommend backing up photographs digitally, then storing the medium off site. Or backup to the Cloud. Not necessarily for when the SHTF but for natural disaster.
March 9th, 2013 at 12:27 pmI have all my info on a thumb drive that I then vacuum sealed with my foodsaver and put in my bug out bag! Thanks for the list! Great idea about our furry babies info too!
March 9th, 2013 at 2:07 pmI use my printer to scan cards, pictures and special documents and then transfer it to Neatdesk. This is a great way to keep all papers and documents including taxes on my computer, on flashdrives, external hard drive, Mozy and even gave a dvd to a relative just in case. It may be overkill but it does give me peace of mind.
March 9th, 2013 at 3:13 pmMost of these documents are also important for Cancer patients…they need stuff handy! I would include any Power of Attorney or Living Wills as well as a brief Medical History and Medication List!
March 9th, 2013 at 3:29 pmI have been advocating these types of preparedness measures for years. It is something that is so important. As we begin to recover from Superstorm Sandy I cant tell you how important it is to be able to produce these documents for assistance. One thing I recommend that I didnt see posted was to have a duplicate set (either hard copy or digital) outside the impacted area, say with a family member or friend out of state.
March 9th, 2013 at 6:37 pmThanks for the list.
March 10th, 2013 at 1:53 amI have all my “prepper” books, articles and documents saved to mini SD cards. The cards are used in my older smart phone. If SHTF, we have solar charger for the phone and all the info at our finger tips. The small, lightweight phone fits nicely in the ToGo pack.
Thank you for posting this. I have been working on this and missed some items on your list. This is just common sense to protect important documents and yet people label this as a “prepper” activity.
March 11th, 2013 at 8:10 am“Babycatcher” has it right. Shortwave/HAM radio operators will be our only source of reliable communication until the power comes back on.
March 11th, 2013 at 1:14 pmAll this talk of Smart phones,flash drives/SD cards,solar chargers,etc.Everything done “on line”.The more sophisticated we become,the more vulnerable we are.I wonder if in 20 years anyone will even have the ability to write by hand? Think about it. Electronic devices in the hands of kids right when they are able to walk,maybe even before!
I dunno,I hope everyone who seems unable to be without electronic devices has other,perhaps old school methods of protecting important documents when a massive EMP strikes. Don’t believe it? Then you never been without power of any kind lasting 24hrs or more. Google it, electromagnetic pulse. You can also look up the New York blackout of 2003 just for a small example of what happens and how people react.It’s not some made up doomsday prediction.Not If the Govt is currently very concerned about it as well and trying to find ways to prevent it. OH! and don’t forget, your car (95% of them) will also shut off.Remember, it operates by little electronic computers that will instantly fry. Trains,railways,buses,same thing, all of them will just stop as a result of an EMP. But that’s OK because those who keep talking of and using the expression “When SHTF” have their small backpacks with a change of shoes,supplies and at least a gallon of water in the trunk of their car to get them walking back home.You do, Right? Look,electronics are great! they make life easier. We unfortunately however are more and more disconnected from each other on a human to human level,that in itself is sad. Just try and have another plan that does not rely on electronics to resurrect.You then will be that much better prepared.
I just want to remember where all my food and guns are.You could Tattoo that info on your butt.
March 13th, 2013 at 12:22 pm