Visitors online: 85
Emergency Documentation To Keep In 72 Hour Kit
March 22, 2010Keep Important Printed Information in your Vehicle 72 Hour Kit
In addition to your 72 hour kit, keep a written list of information including family and important contacts, emergency bug-out-plan, and encrypted information of your insurance and financial accounts. Record this information in a small spiral notepad that you can keep dry in a zip lock bag.
In an emergency Get-Out-Of-Dodge situation, do not rely on your cell phone to maintain all of your contact information. Although the cell phone address book is a convenient first step for such information, it becomes quite useless when the battery is dead, especially if there is no means to recharge it, or if the cell towers are offline due to power failure or network down. Having written contact information in your vehicle kit will be invaluable.
Keep Family and Friends Contact Information in your Vehicle 72 Hour Kit
In the event of a local, regional, or widespread emergency disaster where you need to evacuate your work or home, or you cannot return to your home, your family or close network will either be within the same disaster region or will have heard the news and will be concerned for your well being. They could be a valuable point of contact and able to relay messages for separated people in a disaster situation. Write down their address and phone numbers so when you have access to a working phone, you can let them know of your situation.
Keep Bug-Out-Plan Information in your Vehicle 72 Hour Kit
If you cannot return home, or if it would be dangerous to do so, decisions will have to be made as to where to go and what to do. These decisions should be planned and made ahead of time and may differ depending on the crisis. Spell out the plan for each different scenario that you are planning for. If you do not already have your own bug-out-location, consider alternate locations that will work for your geographical situation. Depending on where you live, your regional hazards and population density, your choices will vary.
For those living in an Earthquake zone, determine the worse case EQ and be sure that your BOL is outside the potential perimeter of damage from the fault line (this may be something like 50 – 100 miles depending). If you live along coastlines that are at risk for Hurricanes, pick your BOL far enough inland and ideally out of the mainstream of traffic flow which will surely be a problem during an actual evacuation. If you live in areas of Tornados, your BOL doesn’t have to be as far away from home given the Tornado’s narrow path of destruction but plan for it nonetheless. You do not have to live in a natural disaster zone to have a plan. There are many other threats out there that could turn quickly into disasters, particularly for those that live in high population density centers.
It is a good idea to have a predetermined plan of travel and a meeting spot along the way to a bug-out-location, for the scenario where you and your spouse may each be in different locations during the event. If the electrical power is out, then your cell phones will be useless (towers will be offline). Having a written plan, and copy in each vehicle, will eliminate panic and uncertainty, and will give you a head start ahead of the mob. Your travel route should be mapped out ahead of time and ideally be off of the main freeways which will surely clog with traffic and may even become impassable around major cities. Know of more than one route to get to your destination. First thing to remember for your trip, if possible, fill your gas tank immediately (assuming the power is on for the pumps in that area). I rarely let my tank fall below half and have extra fuel with me in case of emergency.
If it is determined that you cannot make it back home, and if it will not be safe to stay where you are now, and your options of communication are out, and assuming that the roads are passable, travel to your first meeting spot. In case you have to move on from your first meeting spot, have a predetermined indicator that you have made it to that point and have moved on. Maybe keep a small can of spray paint in the vehicle so that you can make a mark somewhere within the predetermined location of your meeting spot (the pavement of the far end parking space for example).
I highly recommend that you predetermine that you will call a certain family member or friend and let them know your location and plan. That way, if and when your spouse is able to get to a working phone, a similar call will be placed to discover your situation. Like I said, your cell phones may be out but you may come across a working land line (at least for the first few days until the land line backup system batteries go out – if the power failure is wide enough).
Keep Encrypted Financial Information in your Vehicle 72 Hour Kit
It is a good idea to have with you your account numbers and contact information for your various insurance and financial accounts. You can store this information and encrypt it on a USB thumb drive, and your can simply write it on paper using some simple encryption techniques.
There are many different file encryption programs out there. Search online for whatever works for you. I keep a copy of the Encryption Software installer file itself, as well as the encrypted file of financial accounts on a USB thumb drive so that when using someone else PC or laptop, it is simple to install and use it to open the encrypted file or files.
If you simply want to keep written documentation, but in an encrypted format, you can use a simple method which will keep 99.99% of anyone who may see it, in the dark. In this case you are only concerned about hiding your account numbers. You can choose your own unique 10 character keyword number cipher (with no repeat characters, called isograms) that will represent the numbers 1 – 10. For example, AFTERSHOCK could represent 1234567890. If my account number was 5832-99765, the code would be ROTF-CCHSR.
Remember to take the time for preparedness before you actually need it. Your own survival preparedness is your best insurance policy.
Similar Articles You Might Enjoy:
