As far as natural disasters go, in southeast Tennessee where we live we can be affected mostly by flooding or tornados. A few years ago, a tornado caused a lot of damage here and sadly loss of life. Our home was spared but the path of the tornado went less than a quarter-mile from the back of our house!
(This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase from one of my links, I may receive a commission or credit at no additional cost to you. For more info, please read my Affiliate Information Policy.)
Tornado season here is mostly in the spring and then in late fall, but disaster preparedness is a year-round responsibility. The too-close-for-comfort tornado made me realize we need to be prepared to bug-out at any time and to have our important papers and other information ready to go with us.
What Is An Emergency Binder?
Your emergency binder is basically a grab-and-go notebook of vital paperwork you would need to start over after an emergency. It would also be a valuable asset in the case of a death in the family.
Why Do You Need An Emergency Binder?
Why have an organized plan and documentation? If you have a plan it helps everyone act quickly and decisively in the case of disaster. Everyone in your household will feel more at ease knowing what to do, and what to grab. Being prepared will mean you can evacuate quickly if you need to.
What Needs To Be In Your Emergency Binder?
What needs to be included in an emergency notebook? An emergency readiness plan should include legal documents on all family members, financial information and other notes. The information will make recovery from the disaster so much easier.
As a note, you also need clothes and other essentials for each family member, but for this article, I am going to focus on paperwork and documentation.
I am going to list a lot of possible items for your binder. You can then tailor them to your personal situation. I suggest the documents are physical paper in a binder but again, do what is best for you. Use sheet protectors to safeguard your documents.
You can make copies of important documents and keep the originals in a fireproof safe or safe deposit box. Some documents could be scanned and stored on a secure cloud-based system.
(If you have pets, read this article about how to prepare for their care if an emergency happens.)
You need an emergency binder! An emergency binder is a grab-and-go notebook of vital paperwork you would need to start over after an emergency. #Emergency #EmergencyBinder #BePrepared Share on XTHE List of Documents
This is a list of everything I could imagine you might have, certainly not everything will apply to every person.
Emergency Contacts
- Family and friends addresses and phone numbers.
- School and daycare contacts.
- Doctors, Dentists, and local hospitals.
- Business/work contacts and numbers.
Financial Information
- Credit card numbers and phone numbers. Copy the front and back of all cards and store the copy.
- Copies of Insurance policies (Home, Rental, Auto, Life, Boat, RV, etc.).
- Utility accounts and contact information.
- Recent statements from all financial accounts such as checking, savings, 401K and other investments. Needs to include the account number and contact information.
- List of all debts including account number and contact information.
Copies of Vital and Legal Documents
- Drivers licenses or state-issued ID.
- Birth Certificates.
- Passports.
- Titles (Car, Boat, RV, etc.).
- Marriage License.
- Wills (check with your state, the original Will may be the only valid copy).
- Military service documents.
- Adoption/foster records.
- Social security card.
- Immigration records.
- Deed for any properties including burial plots.
- Mortgage information.
- Power of Attorney documents.
- Contracts.
- Divorce and custody documents.
- Last year’s income tax.
- Safe-deposit information. A family member also needs to be on the registration.
- A recent picture of the family members and pets.
Medical
- List of all prescriptions.
- Copy of medical insurance cards; front and back.
- Immunization records.
- Living Will.
- Do Not Resuscitate order.
- A medical power of attorney.
- Medical records if anyone has a serious illness or disease.
Miscellaneous
- Home inventory. A flash drive of pictures would be a good start.
- Passwords to vital websites such as financial sites. I am in favor of having a list of all passwords.
- Cash. If credit card systems are not working you will need cash. Keep the amount you need in small bills.
- Burial and final wishes.
- A flash drive of photos you don’t want to lose. You could also upload then to secure photo storage like Google or Amazon.
- Spare keys to vehicles and your house.
Your binder should also have a couple of other checklists. A very important page would be your emergency plan. I’m not going into that right now, but there are several .gov sites like Ready.gov that will give you excellent information.
Another list should be physical items you would want to grab if you have time. Make the list now to save frantically making decisions when time is short.
List of items to grab along with the binder
- Medications
- Glasses
- Contacts
- Flashlight
- Phone chargers
- Laptops
- A few days clothes
- First Aid Kit
This binder will also help in case there is a death and the surviving family needs to take care of everything. Plus, whether there is an emergency or not, it is beneficial to have all these documents in one handy, easy to find place.
Preparing an emergency binder may take some time, but if you ever have to leave home because of an emergency situation you can feel good that this is one thing you won’t need to worry about!
Having this binder is a great start to being prepared in the case of an emergency. Keep it up to date and also work on your emergency plan and be sure everyone in your family knows what to do.
Great detailed list and important things to remember ~ Pinned! This past week a tornado touched down one town over. You just never know what or when things will happen. Visiting from twitter. 🙂
Allyson,
Thanks for the comments. You are so right that you just don’t know when something will happen. I hope you were not affected any by the tornado. They are so scary!
I love your Twitter page!
Have a blessed day,
Janet