Emergency Response - Public Works Group Blog

April 29, 2019April 22, 2019

Collect & Copy Documents – Week 3

At this point,Â I am aware of my risks and have a emergency plan for my family based on those risk. Now, during this week, I am concentrating on collecting and copying important documents. These are the types that I might need right after a disaster. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) offers a publication which lists the types of documents we might need. These include the following:

Vital records:Â birth, marriage, adoption, child custody papers, other
Identification: Passport, driver’s license, social security card, other
Pet ownership records
Housing documents such as a rental agreement, deed, mortgage
Vehicle documents such as the VIN, registration, insurance, title
Other documents such as loans, bills, credit cards, other
Financial account information
Insurance policy information
Income information
Tax information
Estate planning: copies of wills, trusts
Health/dental insurance information
List of medications, immunizations, other
Living will, power of attorney papers
Documentation of disabilities
Contact information for doctors, veterinarians, specialists
Employer contact information
School contact information
Religious and social service providers
Home repair service providers
Documentation of possessions

Where do I put all this information?
At this point, I have most of that information, but it is spread out all over. Some is in paper format and some information is digital or in my phone. So I need to figure out the best way to collect it in one place so I can easily get to it after a disaster. The best way is also probably different for everyone so after reading all these ideas, I will need to figure out what works best for my family.

Some ideas are to:

Keep paper copies in a fireproof and waterproof safe or box
Keep paper copies with a trusted friend or relative
Store digital copies on a password-protected site accessed through the Internet
Store digital copies on a password-protected flash drive or external hard drive

If storing things in paper format in the house, I need to also consider keeping them safe during either a flood or high winds. I guess I never thought about it before, but if my home was damaged, all the paper records I have could blow away. Having critical documents flying all around where anyone could find them is really not good. So if I’m going to keep critical documents in paper format in my home, I need to make sure they are secured in a box that can’t open if subject to high wind.

Some records I know are at my service providers such as my insurance agent, financial institution, employer, and doctor’s office. But it’s probably a good idea to have copies with me or at least some minimal information related to my accounts because I am not sure those places would be open or also destroyed after a disaster. If I keep information stored on the computer, I am also not sure how long it would be after a disaster before I can access the Internet.

So that’s it for this week – I’ll be collecting my information in one place then securing it in a way that makes sense for my family so we can easily get to it after a disaster. And fortunately I already have a secure box to put information in that I would not want blowing around if my home is damaged.

As a side note, throughout this series of posts about getting prepared, I may mention certain products, services, agencies, etc. At no time is it my intention to promote a specific product or service or agency. Each is mentioned only for informational purposes.Â Of course as a government employee, I do receive a salary from the government for the time I work on my job, but I don’t receive any compensation from any commercial entities I mention or include in these posts.

April 27, 2019April 28, 2019

Make Your Plan Part 6 – Week 2

If you’ve made it this far, you are well on your way to being prepared! And at this point we should be done with the step which included the most work – Making Your Plan. We have one more week of preparing information then we’ll start building our preparedness kit!

To help out others, as I made my plan I created a fillable PDF form anyone can use. The format is really simple so that you don’t have to spend a lot of time filling it out, but it will still offer you some good information to help you before, during, or after a disaster or hazardous event. You can download it by clicking the image below (it looks like you will need to open it in Adobe Reader to add the images – it wouldn’t let me add images in the Google Chrome viewer):

Thanks for sticking with us so far! To end this week, I’ve pasted below the Make a Plan video for those who like videos:

April 26, 2019April 25, 2019

Make Your Plan Part 5 – Week 2

Am I insured for this risk?

I’ve added insurance here rather than in a separate step because I believe insurance is part of the planning process. Now that you know your risks, ask yourself if your existing insurance policies cover you for damages due to those risks. You can get insurance for many hazards such as fire, flood, and earthquake. If you are not sure of what is available, you can contact an insurance agent.

If you are fully covered already, that’s great. But if not, it might be a good idea to at least get a quote for insurance for each hazard because getting a quote is usually free. Then you can weigh your risk with your budget. Where we live, earthquake risk is not so great, so for us it isn’t worth the hit to our budget. We’ve also purchased a home that is not at risk of flooding from either being in the flood plain or from an isolated flooding problem. My real estate agent could tell you the lengths we went to make sure of that. But if you live in an area that does experience or has a risk for these hazards, having insurance will help you recover faster and more fully should you experience an event. Also if you cannot afford the cost of flood insurance for the full replacement value of your home, you can always ask for a quote for a lesser amount. The reason for this is that in the case of a flood at least having some insurance is better than none.

The threat of a fire and earthquake and even flooding if you are in a floodplain make sense to people. But I noticed when I was working for local government that people didn’t always realize they could be flooded even if they didn’t live in a flood plain. If you want to find out about your flood risk, you can always ask your local government personnel if your area is at risk of flooding or has flooded in the past. If so, you can still buy flood insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) even if you are not in the flood plain as long as your community participates in the NFIP. If you are not in the flood plain, the insurance through NFIP is typically at a much reduced price since you are not in the designated special flood hazard area. To get an idea ofÂ the damages you could experience due to water in your home, you can use this tool on the Floodsmart.gov website.

Also, if your community participates in the Community Rating System, you can receive a discount on your flood insurance based on their rating. The reduction, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) which administers the program, is: “For CRS participating communities, flood insurance premium rates are discounted in increments of 5 percentÂ (i.e., a Class 1 community would receive a 45 percentÂ premium discount, while a Class 9 community would receive a 5 percentÂ discount).Â A Class 10 is not participating in the CRS and receives no discount.”

Finally, here’s some additional information about insurance from the Ready.gov site:Â Document and Insure Your Property.

So for today, the step was to review your insurance coverage and consider if you have coverage for your risks. And if you are not already insured for those risks, balance the needs of your budget with the cost of the insurance and risk to decide if you should getÂ insurance or not for that risk.

Thankfully for this step, and for our budget, we would not need additional insurance.

April 25, 2019April 22, 2019

Make Your Plan Part 4 – Week 2

Part four of making the plan looks at communication:

What is myÂ family/household communication plan?

For our communication plan, we need to have a list of all important numbers such as those of family members, doctors, emergency services, hospitals, schools, and possibly employers. This list should be kept in paper format by all household members and in our phones.

Remember during a disaster sometimes only texts will go through rather than voice calls. We created a text group with all our family members including those who live in our household and those who do not.

We also need to figure out an emergency meeting place in our home, neighborhood, and outside our community. Any one of these may need to be accessed depending on the level of disaster.

Discuss how your family will communicate during the threat of a disaster, during the event, and after. You can also practice by having a test of a disaster to make sure everyone knows how to respond and where to go.

The Ready.gov site offers a fillable Family Emergency Communication Plan you can download by clicking that link.

That’s it for communication. Tomorrow we’ll focus on the next step – insurance.

April 24, 2019April 20, 2019

Make Your Plan Part 3 – Week 2

The third part of making a plan is to consider and plan for potential evacuations:

What is myÂ evacuationÂ route?

Like the sheltering part of your plan, the evacuation part will be dependent upon each type of disaster. Most likely an evacuation outside of your home and neighborhood will be triggered by direction from your community to evacuate.Â Evacuation warnings are usually given as far out in advance as possible. Your community plan most likely considered which types of disasters would require an evacuation and noted the routes designated for these. Some communities have these routes signed at all times.

Some additional items to consider for your plan:

Try to maintain at least a half tank of gas in your car at all times.
If you have no car, be aware of transit or other transportation options and note these in your plan.
Have a checklist to go through to prepare your home for evacuation if you have time. During a disaster you may not have time or be calm enough to think of everything so this checklist will help make sure you address each important item.

You can also get additional tips at the Ready.gov Evacuation site.

April 23, 2019April 23, 2019

Make Your Plan Part 2 – Week 2

In this next part of week two, we need to figure out our plan for sheltering:

What is myÂ shelterÂ plan?

The Ready.gov site advises us to consider where to take shelter if we receive a warning or believe we are threatened with an emergency. The local plan we looked up last week might have listed some local shelters. These would be important to know if we cannot shelter in place in our homes or businesses. In making our own plan, we need to consider each specific risk we may face, then decide the best place to take shelter during that disaster. During some hazardous events, such as a tornado, the best place to shelter may be our home if we have either a basement or tornado safe room in our house. But if we live in a home with no basement or shelter, the best place to go might be a nearby community tornado safe room. It might also be in an interior room if there is no nearby shelter.

As an example of shelters provided by an agency, the city of Chicago offers warming and cooling centers during periods of extreme cold and heat. They encourage residents to register to receive warning alerts and then text 3-1-1 to find the location of shelters near them.

Remember the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) app will list open shelters in your area during an active disaster. So make sure to add in your plan to verify on your app during the disaster that the shelter you plan to go to is open.Â Also, if you have pets, call ahead now, if possible, to the entity managing the designated shelter to see if pets are allowed and note this in your plan.

You can find additional sheltering tips at theÂ Ready.gov ShelterÂ site.

So that’s it for day two – know where shelters might be available in your area during a disaster, decide in what circumstances you may need to shelter and where, and understand how to find what shelters may be available or set up during a disaster.