DSG Drill: Emergency Evacuation
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| Wed, 01-25-2006 - 2:59pm |
Haven't had a drill in a while. I hope littlesbigs won't mind if I step in and do one.
Okay, you've just been evacuated from your home (fire, flood, other emergency situation--localized to your neighborhood). You had less than five minutes to gather your family, pets, and anything else you could grab. Your purse is not near the door, and you can't take the time to look for it.
Question #1: What did you take with you?
Question #2: Where will you spend the night, and how will you pay for it? How will you buy food? How will you contact your insurance company to make a claim? Who will you call for help?
Your home may be gone by the time the crisis is over. How will you pay your bills? Do you have records of all your credit cards and account numbers and due dates? Where are those records? How will you access them?
This is on my mind because dh sent me the article I've posted below, and I've been working on following its advice. For others interested in being prepared, this article also makes it easy for heirs should you die suddenly (heaven forbid).
From the NY Times:
How to Prepare for One Really Quick Getaway
By DAMON DARLIN
What is the first thing you will grab from your home if your house floods, catches on fire or comes tumbling down in an earthquake? Family photos? The pets? The Hummel figurines?
It probably will not be your financial and medical records, the very things you will need to rebuild your life after a disaster. If you are like most people, you have documents stashed in various places throughout your home, perhaps some under lock and key. And with your mind racing as danger hits, you are not going to have the time or wherewithal to figure out which ones you need.
In any case, your financial and medical records would be such a large and unwieldy pile that you would just say forget about it, grab Fluffy and scramble out of there. Indeed, that is probably your reaction any time someone suggests you get your records organized.
But wait. Do not run away yet. New technology is making this tedious task less odious, and surprisingly, it is not that expensive.
All told, you can secure your records in a weekend afternoon. Even better, doing all this has a wonderful side effect: it can put you in better financial shape to survive a disaster because you will end up a lot smarter about how you spend and save money. For instance, one of the first things to do is compile a list of where everything is - account numbers and the locations of important documents. The list will help you or anyone in your family locate things you need for the insurance adjuster or relief worker. (Download a template for this information that you can place right on your computer.)
This is really the "if hit by a bus" list that financial planners have been recommending you compile for your heirs. If you think of the list that way, you will be reminded of your mortality and you will not want to write it. But think of the families displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita or by California wildfires, and the psychological barrier collapses. The list becomes a much easier sell now, said Brent Neiser, a director for the National Endowment for Financial Education. "It forces you to think," he said.
Here is what else you have to do to protect your records and yourself:
RECORD: Once you have made your basic list, save it on a U.S.B. flash drive. A 256-megabyte drive, which you can buy for $20 or even less if you catch a store promotion, gives you enough space for that file and all the other suggestions mentioned below.
Several of the big flash drive makers, like SanDisk and Lexar Media, are now selling more advanced drives that allow you to encrypt the data so others cannot read it without knowing the alphanumeric key that unlocks the code. Some are even shock proofed with heavier rubber and plastic coatings. Those will cost about $10 to $20 more, but are certainly worth it when you consider the sensitivity of the data on them.
It is also a good idea to copy the contents onto additional drives for backup and for other members of the family.
BONUS: When you are listing the credit cards, also note the credit limits so you will know how much you could spend in an emergency. If your credit cards are at their limits now, you are not going to have any cushion to fall back on. So start paying off balances, beginning with the card carrying the highest interest rate.
SCAN: Some important documents are on paper and you will want copies of them with you: tax returns for the last three years (Form 1040 is all you will need in an emergency), a recent pay stub, birth certificates, marriage license, the deed to your home and insurance policy pages that list your coverage. If you do not have a scanner or a printer with a flat scanner, take the pile of documents down to a copy center like Kinko's to scan. Record the image files on the U.S.B. drive.
BONUS: Take the opportunity to check your insurance coverage for potential disasters like flooding. With homes appreciating in value, you may also find you need to increase coverage.
SHOOT: Some personal finance advisers suggest that you make a spreadsheet listing everything you own and enter the date and price paid and then file all the receipts and ... yeah, yeah. You will never do it. But creating a detailed inventory of everything you own need not be a major chore when technology comes to the rescue. Many households now have a camcorder or digital camera. Walk around each room and take a picture of each item. Then, either store all the photos on a memory card (unless you live in the Biltmore mansion, you can load all the photos on a 256- or 512-megabyte card). Or you can transfer them to the same U.S.B. drive with your other documents.
Describe each object on the camcorder soundtrack or in the file name of the digital photo. Make an extra copy on another card or drive. "If you give one to your insurance adjuster, you go to the front of the line," Mr. Neiser said.
For additional protection, you could upload the photos - as well as all your beloved family photos - to one of the free online photo services like Flickr.com, Picasa.com, Snapfish.com, or Kodakgallery.com. Anybody you choose can then have access to them from any computer anywhere. (Make sure to set the privacy options, though.)
BONUS: You are going to discover a lot of stuff you no longer want or need. Sell it or donate it and take a tax deduction. Intuit, maker of Quicken and TurboTax, sells a $20 program called ItsDeductible that estimates the value of donated items, but Bankrate.com and Salvationarmyusa.org have free valuation guides.
SECURE: Now it is time for your medical records. You can place your health history as well as digitized copies of X-rays, scans and electrocardiograms on the same encrypted flash drive.
Those with serious medical conditions may want to consider a product sold by the nonprofit organization that developed the MedicAlert bracelet 50 years ago. It sells a special USB flash drive on its Web site, www.medicalert.org, called the E-HealthKey for $85. SanDisk originally developed the product for the Army. Pop the flash drive into any computer and a screen flashes with your medical condition to alert emergency room personnel, for instance, to an allergy or your use of a pacemaker. But beyond that screen, medical information you enter with the help of a user-friendly program right on the drive is encrypted.
For an additional $20-a-year fee, MedicAlert uploads your data to its server so you have a backup.
The E-HealthKey is only available for PC's running Windows XP or Windows 2000. You may want to wait until November when the organization issues an improved version.
BONUS: The E-HealthKey software, created by a division of Bio-Imaging Technologies, also plots your weight, cholesterol or anything you regularly record, onto a graph. "It's a great wellness tool," said Ramesh Srinivasan, MedicAlert's vice president for marketing. If you are going to run for your life, clutching your flash drive and the Hummels, you had better be healthy.

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Question 1: I took my two sons and my cat. Nothing else was easy enough to grab or seemed important enough. I would have liked to have taken my fish, but it would have taken too long to move him into something more portable than his five-gallon bowl. I'll have to just hope for the best.
Question 2: We probably would have gone first to dh's office to use the phone and Internet. Dh would probably have grabbed his laptop, which would have some--but not all--our account information. Fortunately, I can access most of my accounts online and get information I need. I would contact USAA (I have their phone number memorized and can access them online as well), and begin the claims process. I suspect they'd offer other types of help as well.
I'm not sure how we'd pay for anything at first, because we wouldn't have any ID. Fortunately, we would probably be able to spend the night at one of dh's coworker's homes, or we could stay at the Meetinghouse where we attend. Someone is likely to have pity on us and provide us food at first. In the meantime, USAA will probably be mailing new cards to an address that we specify.
As for paying bills, it would be a bit more complicated, because my files are all on my computer. I do back up Microsoft Money to dh's laptop, so we would probably have that, though it might be as much as a month behind. And I could access all my accounts online. Still, it would be a lot of work getting caught back up. I should probably be saving stuff to a USB drive and keeping it at another location.
Knock on wood!
We could stay with my parents and eat their food. :) (Thank goodness for Mom and Dad!!!)
If I thought to grab our financial information, I have most of it in a basket that is relatively close to the door. But the other information is in the bedroom. Hmmm....
~Aravis~
I'm going to assume you have kids/pets and the rest is extra stuff.
Honestly, I would probably have nothing with me because it would have taken me those 5 minutes to get the kids gathered and out the door (and cats - if time - if it's at night and sleeping I would need every one of those minutes to get everyone out and I don't think I would be thinking about anything else - actually I would probably be thinking "where are my shoes" since it's wintertime right now and not exactly where I want to go outside barefoot in!
Becky
CL of 4th, 5th & 6th grade Scoliosis
Heather - great article!
All my best,
Danni
That sounds great, Danni. I love the idea of attaching the flash drive to a keychain. Except, well, I can never find my keys... so I'd be in pretty big trouble if I had to evacuate suddenly, wouldn't I? Maybe first, I need to address a system for keeping track of my keys...
Anyway, by all means, let's do a follow-up in a month. Maybe it will keep me on track getting my files organized too.
Blessings,
Heather
Great fire drill Heather!
Besides the obvious of getting everyone out first and throwing on some clothes (if it was the middle of the night)~~ my purse is exactly what I would grab. I keep it right by the door just so I know where it is at all times. I have all my bank info and ccs in there- not to mention ss card, license, health insurance cards, keys.....
I guess I also have my bill folders I could grab- I never thought of that before. It would be very hard to call the mortgage company or insurance company if you didn't have the phone number or account number on hand!! I also have a fireproof lock box in our bedroom with car titles, loan papers, bank statements, savings bonds and such. I probably should not keep all of the things I do in my purse (ss card!)
We would go to my or DH's parents to stay. They live about 20 minutes each in different directions from us so hopefully there wouldn't be a catastophe that would wipe that whole area out!!
I'm going to get things in better order now ~~also I plan on video taping our stuff and putting that in the lock box as well. Thanks!
Nicki
Let's see...5 minutes....
1) I would send the kids out the door to the car then grab the backpacks I made up for them after Katrina. Each one has a couple of changes of clothes, some diapers and a card with their information in case we got separated. I wanted to add some cash to those but hadn't done it. I would then grab the first 4 files in my filing cabinet which have bank information, insurance information and the kids health information. If I had additional time, I would toss some of the camping stuff in the back of the car since it's right there in the garage (O.K. realistically I would probably grab the scrapbook albums as well but they are on a shelf together at least) Oh shoot, I should add meds to my mental list....I don't want a catastrophe baby as a result of leaving birth control behind!!
2) If it was just our house that's affected we would go to my in-laws in the same town. If our whole area is evacuated, we would go to my parents and we have shared that contact information with other relatives so they would know where to look for us. We have an emergency credit card in the car. We also have the car insurance cards which have the contact information for our insurance company (they handle house insurance as well). While I don't have records of all the account numbers I do pay all my CC bills online and know all the passwords, etc. for those to pay bills online.
Just a side note....since we live 2 blocks from DH's employer-if we're hit, they're probably hit so that would wreak havoc for us. But, it's not like I can magically make a huge amount appear in savings for such an event so instead I just continue doing the best I can to pay down debt so that I can accumulate that money.
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That seems like a great idea. Initially I thought I would be concerned about security but I suppose it's no riskier than having a purse stolen. I will think about doing this. Thanks!
Peg
The chaos that would be going on in this house, lol!
Question #1)DH, DD & cats for sure. Extra clothes and all that? Uh, maybe. I do know that I'd for sure take my FLY Control journal with us. I have sections with account #'s, passwords, websites, etc. as well as the insurance information.
Question #2)We'd probably head to one of the in-laws' places. Most of DH's family lives sort of near and would take us in. Our insurance guy is one who has known DH and his family for eons, and would defintely do whatever he could to help us out (part of the joy of small-town living, lol). Most of our bills are set up to be either auto-pay or online pay, so as long as I could get to a computer or phone to call the nice people, not a problem. If I couldn't, for whatever reason, I'd probably call my mom in Oregon, go over it all with her, and have her do it for me.
I know that many of the documents we need are in the fireproof lock box, but that won't help us if we don't have it. My wallet is always by the keys, so if I had the keys, I could get the wallet.
Because we live in an area where tornado warnings/watches are the norm all through spring and summer, we can move pretty quickly if we needed to. In the middle of winter, though, I am seeing that I am not as prepared. Huh. Guess I have a new project too!
Good DSG Drill, Heather. Now let's hope it doesn't follow the 'normal' pattern of it actually happening to someone within a couple of weeks!
~Lisa
"Your purse is not near the door, and you can't take the time to look for it."
This would never happen in my home, because purse and keys go in the same spot everyday or I'd never make it anywhere on time, but assuming I had my keys and no purse this is how I think we'd would do:
Question #1: What did you take with you?
Keys,cell phone, fiance and 2 cats. Possible important papers car titles, land title as they are now all in first file folder of file cabinet since we evacuated 4 times due to hurricanes in just over a year. Frances & Jeanne 2004, Katrina & Wilma 2005. Luckily we had warning and no major damages from any of them, but put all the documents in heavy duty trash bags in the trunk of my car when we evacuated the first time and when we returned we refiled only the important ones in the first folder so we grabbed and went the next time with just a few important papers.
Question #2: Where will you spend the night, and how will you pay for it? How will you buy food? How will you contact your insurance company to make a claim? Who will you call for help?
We would stay with friends, first choice would be a widowed friend who has lots of space, if she wasn't home, my boss or several co-workers would let us stay with them for a few days. We don't have insurance, we rent and my belongings are just things that can be replaced, heck most of it is stuff we don't even need (like 3 computers & 2 TVs) all stuff we could survive without. As for clothes my boss and I are the same size, so I'm sure she would give me some things to wear. We have a good friendship as well as professional relationship. :) Food is easy enough, we always have more food than we need around the office and again friends and co-workers would insist on feeding us even if we had money, food and place to stay.
Your home may be gone by the time the crisis is over. How will you pay your bills? Do you have records of all your credit cards and account numbers and due dates? Where are those records? How will you access them?
I have direct deposit and pay all my bill except for rent online. All credit card numbers and due dates would be accessed from the office and payments are already scheduled for at least 45 days in advance. Would have to replace drivers license first, I'm assuming it would be pretty easily done with any piece of mail addressed to me and photos now being stored digitally by the DMV it would be pretty easy to determine it was me. Also, my mom has my birth certificate in her posession about 50 miles away, so a relative could drive it to me within an hour. We would then need to go in person to my bank to replace debit card and checkbooks.
Proud sister of a Marine:
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