Records & Important Documents..

In the event of a disaster, knowing where your family records and important documents are and being able take them with you during an evacuation can save you a lot of time and headaches. So what documents should you gather? Some examples include: birth certificates, adoption, marriage, and death certificates; passports, deeds, titles, leases, insurance policies, social security records, contracts, wills, household inventory, trusts, credit card information, income tax returns, medical records, etc... You'll want to find a waterproof, firesafe container to put them in. Keep these documents in a safe place at home and make sure that everyone in your family knows where they are.

Flash drives, which can be found in most stores for ~$10-15, or data cds are also a great way to save scanned copies of these documents. Important pictures, files, and videos can also be stored on the flash drive so if something were to happen to your home you'd still have digital copies of those cherished moments.

You can also go through your home with a video camera and include a household inventory digital video file and spreadsheet. There are several free computer programs out there that will step you through the process, even let you upload pictures. One that I have downloaded and started using is found here: http://www.knowyourstuff.org/ but like I said there are several out there so feel free to look around. Once you finish, save it to your flash drive, and throw it all in your Go Disaster Kit.