Sometimes, in the event of a natural disaster, you will need to keep track of essential information that will be of use to you. It will give you peace of mind, which will prevent you from having to scramble at the last minute to gather your important documents.
It is always a good idea to bring your important documents with you if you are forced to evacuate your home due to a natural disaster. This is because there is a possibility that you will not be able to return home. After all, it will be too dangerous. In circumstances like these, having a family emergency binder that is ready to go will be of great assistance.
What is it?
The important documents and information about your household can be arranged in an orderly fashion and kept safe in a family emergency binder. It is a group of documents that you need to gather in the event of a crisis and if you need to begin your life over again. It includes private information about every member of your family. Documents about the law, details regarding your assets and finances, and a list of contacts are included.
Why Emergency Binders Are a Must in Every Family
Emergency binders are an essential component of a comprehensive disaster plan for a family. During a fire drill, it is imperative that you grab it as soon as possible after getting out of the building. It has the potential to assist everyone in being better prepared for the most trying of times. You are aware that things can go wrong. There are also instances of natural disasters.
And in some cases, the cause can be traced back to human error. It is impossible to know exactly when these things will take place, and there is no way you will have the time to gather everything you need to keep safe. That anxiety can be alleviated if you plan and put together a binder with important information for your family.
When you have all of the necessary documents with you, it is simple to provide evidence of who you are and where you live. This makes it simple for you to collect benefits and insurance in the event of a disaster. You won’t have to go through the hassle of retrieving those essential documents again either, saving you even more time. It makes it possible for you to organize the important documents and information that you will require to have an efficient binder that your family can grab and go with.
What Should Be Included in a Family Emergency Binder?
You need to be aware of the contents that should go into an emergency binder. If you are compelled to leave your house, the lives of your loved ones may be in jeopardy. After a natural disaster, you will need specific documents to access funds, receive insurance benefits, receive medical attention, and cross international borders.
It is in your best interest to keep copies of these documents so that they are easy to access if you are required to depart from your house in a hurry. The following is a list of the various types of documents that should be included in every family binder.
1. Copies of the Identifying Documents
During a time of crisis, it is extremely important to have valid identification on you at all times. Your family’s emergency binder needs to have copies of these documents. Identification documents such as driver’s licenses or state IDs, passports, social security cards, credit cards, and school or office IDs are acceptable forms of identification.
2. Copies of Crucial Documents
Your vital records need to be stored in a secure location at all times. In addition to this, you should have copies of all of these significant documents. The following documents will be required: a birth certificate, a marriage certificate, any immigration or naturalization records you may possess, and a death certificate for any family members who have passed away.
3. List of Emergency Contacts
It’s important to keep a copy of your important contacts written down, even if you store most of them in the phonebook on your smartphone. This ensures that you won’t lose any of the relevant information if your phone is misplaced, its battery dies, or is otherwise compromised. Contact information for immediate family members, relatives, and close friends, as well as contacts at schools, employers, and places of employment; local emergency phone numbers; local fire and police departments; local hospitals; and local physicians, dentists, specialists, and counselors, if you have access to any of these resources.
4. Medical Records
In the event of a medical emergency, it is essential to have access to one’s medical information and records. This information, which can be easily conveyed to medical professionals even amid a tense situation in which a member of the family is gushing blood or losing consciousness, can be the difference between life and death. The patient’s medical history, immunization records, current prescriptions, known allergies, medical conditions, information about the patient’s health insurance, and copies of the patient’s health insurance card.
5. Insurance Records
It is important that you can get in touch with your insurance company if a disaster causes damage to your property. Keep these and any other relevant documents in your binder so that you are ready to start the process of filing a claim as soon as the time comes.
6. Legal Records
Legal documents are of the utmost importance; if you were to lose them, it could result in a significant loss as well as a significant inconvenience for you and your family in the future. The deed to your home, the titles to your vehicles, the information on any leases you may have signed, a power of attorney, a copy of your marriage license, and a will.
Family Emergency Binder Tips
Family emergency binders are particularly useful in circumstances in which you might not be able to return to your house right away. You can protect your family by following these guidelines for creating an emergency binder.
1. Assemble the Essential Papers You’ll Need in an Emergency
To get started, you will need to determine which documents are necessary for the emergency binder that will be kept for your family. To begin, locate your identification documents. Documents such as passports, certificates of birth, social security cards, and driver’s licenses fall under this category. After that, proceed to the medical information for each member of the family. This includes a list of any known allergies, medical conditions, and prescription medications currently being taken, as well as health insurance cards and immunization records.
Following that, if any property is damaged, you will require insurance documents. This includes your bank and insurance company’s contact information, as well as copies of your insurance policy and any other documents relating to property ownership, such as the deed to your home. After that, you should make a list of emergency contact numbers, including those of family members and close friends, and print recent photos of each member of the family in the form of an identification card. You will need both the numbers and access to the photos to be able to share them with the people who are helping you if your phone is lost, damaged, or the battery dies.
In conclusion, you should make an evacuation checklist. The first step in any potentially dangerous situation is to remove oneself from it as quickly and safely as possible. If you need to evacuate your home for longer, having a checklist can help you stay focused and ensure that you take everything important with you.
2. Make Copies to Take with You
It is recommended that every family have at least one emergency binder that can be quickly grabbed and carried. To clarify, this refers to a binder that all members of the family can quickly and easily access. You might even want to make several of them to keep in family vehicles and near exits to the building. Even though it is critical for your family’s protection to have a “grab-and-go” family emergency binder, it is not always a good idea to keep the original documents in plain view.
Especially delicate papers like your social security card, which you should always keep in a safe place. Instead, you should make copies of each of the documents that you have gathered. Make as many “grab-and-go” emergency binders as you require using the copies to create the binders.
3. Keep Original Paperwork in a Safe Place
It is important to note that even though you should keep original documents in a safe place, you should still make it simple to find them and transport them in the event of an emergency. It is a good idea to keep important documents in a binder that contains original copies of the documents in case of a family emergency. After you have amassed all of the original family documents, you should arrange them in a binder so that they are simple to transport and store in any location.
4. Put Your Family’s Emergency Binders for Easy Access
After you have collected and copied all of the essential documents for your family, the next step is to arrange them in binders according to their respective categories. The most important thing to think about is how to make the information easy to find in a short amount of time. During a time of crisis, it’s possible that you won’t be able to think about anything else besides your immediate chances of surviving.
As your brain floods your body with adrenaline and cortisol hormones, you might become hyper-focused on one thing or lose all focus altogether. You can do one thing to help everyone keep their cool in a crisis by making certain information visible on the outside of the binder that contains your family’s emergency information.
Another thing that you can do to make the binder easier to navigate is to separate the various types of documents into their sections. Make sure that your family’s emergency binders have separate sections for things like identification documents, medical information, insurance documents, emergency contacts, and identification photos. Be sure to label the spines of your family’s emergency binders very clearly so that everyone knows which copies are “grab-and-go” copies and which are the original documents.
5. Update ID Photos Annually, Especially for Children
Photos are a much more helpful tool than written descriptions alone if you find yourself in a situation after a natural disaster or another emergency in which members of your family are missing. For this reason, it is essential to ensure that you have recent photographs of each member of the family arranged in a portrait-style format. The adults in your household probably do not require a new picture every year; however, this is not the case for children.
Due to the rapid rate at which children mature, annual revisions are necessary. Fortunately, pictures from your child’s school are an excellent choice for the emergency binder you should keep for your family.
6. Create a Backup for Critical Documents, Logins, and Passwords
In this day and age, the majority of the significant domestic responsibilities that we are responsible for can now be completed online. During a time of crisis, knowing that information could prove to be extremely beneficial. Having important websites, passwords, and login information readily available for family members if you are unable to share such details will save a lot of headaches, not to mention the time and energy you will save.
To accomplish this, compile all of the necessary digital information onto a flash drive, and then attach the drive to the binder that you keep for family emergencies. You will be relieved to have it on hand if your electronic devices are misplaced, and you cannot access any saved passwords or websites you have bookmarked.
7. Establish a Routine for Updating Your Family’s Emergency Binder
If you want to get into a good routine, you should try to keep your family emergency binder updated at least once a year. The information and documents are checked and updated annually to make sure they are still relevant and useful. Try to select a date or period that is simple to keep in mind.
For instance, right after you have finished filing your taxes because at that point you will most likely have gone through a significant portion of the paperwork about your household. Or, consider taking pictures of your children after school so that you will have access to recent and updated images of them. Make sure that whatever date or time of year you choose, it is simple for you and your family to remember as well as something that makes sense for the situation.
In the event of a crisis, you and your loved ones might be required to hastily or even immediately leave your residence. You should include a family emergency binder as part of your plan for preparing for a disaster because it is the most effective way to keep all of your important documents together in one place while also making them easy to transport.