Emergency Preparedness - A Recipe for Peace of Mind

Envision the news flash of an upcoming storm. Disaster readiness experts are wailing as loud as the sirens. The graphics on your local station show that a major storm is heading straight for your area. Shortly, the forecasted deluge begins. The winds are howling but somehow, everything holds together. The panic and anxiety of an impending disaster subside as you focus on how well your personal emergency preparedness supplies have been staged. You begin to relax and take pride in your emergency preparedness acumen. Everything is OK. Or so you thought. With nighttime approaching you head for your basement only to find boxes full of your life details floating by. You quickly rush to salvage this cardboard flotilla from certain doom only to discover that your most important papers and household information have turned into a soggy, unreadable mush. Now is the time to panic.

Where is my insurance policy? What is the number I should call? What IS that policy number? Who is gonna help clean up this mess? How much time can I get off from work? What do I do if the food in the freezer spoils? Where are those phone numbers anyway? Usernames and passwords? Forget it.

Chilling thoughts? You bet. Unusual? Not at all. Think of Katrina. Think of the everyday stories of yet another natural disaster that has plagued some part of the country. Think about everyone else being a victim. But now, you're the one. You've become the statistic.

Emergency preparedness is not just about foodstuffs and dwellings. It is also about being able to recreate your life. It is about the ability to recall your most important information. It is about protecting your most important personal information so that in the event of a disaster, you will have the ability to piece your life together again.

Take an inventory of who you are. List the resources that you will contact to assist you if the roof leaks, the plumbing breaks or your will is lost. If someone in the family is injured or lost, you will need their personal information including phone numbers, usernames, passwords and document numbers. Include information about allergies to food and medication. Identify medical resources including their names and contact information. In short, as a part of your disaster preparedness mindset, gather a profile of everything about yourself. Gather the information together that gives you or someone acting for you, the ability to recreate all your information. Use a reliable storage and retrieval method to maintain all of this information so that when it is needed, you and others can quickly prevent the further disaster that could occur if the information is not readily available.

Store your most important information in a safe, easily accessible location. Use tools such as software products to guide you through the information gathering process. Whatever you do, be vigilant in creating a profile of all your important information. The greatest disaster you will ever face is if the apparent mundane details of your life are lost and unrecoverable. The results can be catastrophic to those you love and trust.

Record Tree software is designed as an emergency preparedness tool. It provides categories and templates to be used to identify and document all your important information. The information recorded in Record Tree software is stored securely on your computer and can be copied to a flash drive or other external storage device for transportability and security. The software includes templates to create personal profiles as well as the ability to document important insurance, legal, financial, and medical information. It guides you through the process of identifying usernames and passwords, important numbers and resources, and a host of other attributes. Reports can be created on screen and in print with specialized Wallet Card and Medical Alert Summary reports extracted automatically from the Record Tree database. Don't be caught unprepared.


Article Source: Howard G Sadler