Emergencies are usually as bad as they are because we aren't prepared for them. If you have everything that you need at hand when disaster strikes, it will make any emergency a little easier to cope with.
Instructions
Protect Yourself
1. Write down all the information you know by heart. When disaster strikes, it's difficult to remember anything--even the things you know by heart. Start your notebook with a personal information page. Write down you Social Security number, complete address and phone number, license number and car tag number. If you have a spouse or children or a parent in the house, make sure all this information on everyone is written down. Make copies of everyone's Social Security cards and birth certificates, adoption certificates and passports, if you have them. Also include green cards, military information, marriage certificates, divorce papers and other relevant personal information. Make a copy of all wills, trusts, durable power of attorney forms for health care, living wills and advance directives.
2. Start a second section a couple of pages down and write down all of your financial information. Write down checking account and savings account numbers and the name, address and phone number of your bank. If you have a safe, write down the combination. Write down the information about any safety deposit boxes or private mail boxes that you have. If your spouse or children have accounts, keep all this information on these financial pages. Take all of your credit cards, insurance cards, ID and other cards and make a copy of each one front and back. You can do many together on the page. Make sure the information on the cards is legible. If it isn't, recopy it.
3. Use a third section for medical and prescription information. Write down the names and dosages of all medications, any special instructions and who the medication is for. Write down each person's doctors' names, the addresses of their offices and their phone numbers and information on the hospital or hospitals you use. Write down all available insurance information--the type of medical insurance and any account numbers or patient ID numbers. If you have children, write down all their shots with dates and any school records with student ID numbers. Don't forget to list everyone's allergies and any disorders or conditions they may have.
4. Write down the information you might need about your property--where your mortgage is, account numbers, homeowners and mortgage insurance information. If you have a second home or rental property, write all the information about that down here. Write down enough so that if something happened, someone else could come in and pay these bills and find whatever information you might need to deal with from another location in the event of a fire or flood.
List Contact People and Instructions
5. Have a list of personal emergency numbers in this information. List all of the family members whom you would want to call in the event of an emergency. Put down your accountant, tax preparer, banker, doctors, emergency rooms, even the ones you already listed. This is just for phone numbers, and you can make a copy of this to keep on your refrigerator or inside a cabinet door. Put down the sheriff or police station, fire department, kennel for the pets, emergency babysitters, your employer, the kids' school principle, coach and so on--everyone you might need to call if something came up.
6. Write down any information you would want anyone coming to your aid to find. Include instructions about checking on your grandmother in the nursing home, or your dog's allergy shots, or whatever else that someone coming in--like a relative--might need to take charge. Imagine everything important they would need to know about your pets, kids and household and write it down.
7. Keep some emergency provisions around. You should always have a credit card that doesn't get used much for a real emergency. Keep this and an empty book of checks, a few traveler's checks and a little stash of cash somewhere handy so that you can grab it and go in the event of a fire or flood, for example.
8. Put this information into a safety deposit box or a fireproof safe. You can make two copies and give one each to a trusted relative or friend if you don't have either of those. Just be sure that the information is safe since it will contain everything about your business and your family. Having this will make you feel just a little more secure. It's one more way of taking care of your family.
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