GETTING OUT FAST? MAKE SURE VITAL DOCUMENTS ARE SAFE
No social security card? No job. No pictures or videos of household goods? Try getting the insurance company to pay. No cash or credit cards? Good luck getting a hotel room.
Retrieving important personal documents may not be the first thing people think of when disaster strikes their home. But as many victims of Hurricane Katrina learned, such paperwork is vital when it comes to stitching lives back together.
Emergency management workers around the country are trying to teach people how to protect documents so they can be recovered quickly when homes are struck by fire, hurricanes, earthquakes or other disasters.
“I would like to think that people pay attention,” said Irene Toner, director of Monroe County Emergency Manage-ment in the Florida Keys. “It’s a matter of preparedness.”
Toner, who helps organize emergency response in an area where hurricanes are a fact of life, urges residents to keep multiple copies of life insurance policies, social security cards, credit cards, driver’s licenses, deeds and birth certificates, as well as other information.
Flood-prone households should keep one copy of critical documents in a watertight container, another copy someplace nearby such as a safety deposit box, and a third copy with a friend or relative outside the geographic area, Toner said. “This way if you have to leave suddenly, then chances are you will be able to retrieve them,” she said.
In her housekeeping book, “Home Comforts,” author Cheryl Mendelson adds a few more items to the list of essential documents, including promissory and loan information, pension records, proof of medical insurance and prenuptial agreements. Many of these, she suggests, should be kept outside the home, in a safety deposit box.
At home, she suggests, try to keep important papers in a centralized location.
Making a video or taking photographs of furniture, jewelry, major appliances and other valuables will ease the claims process with homeowner’s insurance.
Where you live will determine the best way to protect documents. In flood-prone areas, keep important papers in plastic zipper bags placed in rubber containers with tight seals, suggests Doris Hamburg, director of preservation programs at the National Archives. In areas more prone to earthquakes, such as California, or tornadoes, such as Kansas, think in terms of the specific threat, Hamburg says. Even choosing the location in your home for a fire safe is important.
Electronic files also deserve consideration. Just as many businesses maintain two file copies in different locations, so families should back up electronic files with electronic or hard copies.
At the very minimum, officials agree that people should keep cash and a short laminated list of insurance policy numbers, the name of their life insurance agent, and emergency phone numbers in their wallets, as well as ID cards.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved.