Be honest… how long would it take you to find the following documents in your house: homeowner’s insurance policy, birth certificate, and/or marriage license? If that sounds like a daunting task under normal circumstances, image how stressful it could be to compile everything as you may only have seconds or minutes to react. In those critical moments, your focus will be on your family’s safety.

Vital personal records are normally not readily accessible. You store them at home in a file cabinet, safe, or even online.  If you had to flee your home quickly, would you even think to bring them with you? How could you be sure you could retrieve your important records online if the power/internet infrastructure is down for days?

Once the threat of harm has passed, having your homeowners or renters insurance policy, back account information, and other vital household records/contacts will be very important to being the recovery process. Take the time now to make copies of your vital records that you may need after an emergency or disaster. To learn what you may need, FEMA recently released an Emergency Financial First Aid Kit to help strengthen your financial and home owner preparedness.