If the California wildfires have shown us anything recently, life can throw curveballs when we least expect them. We know people who have been affected, and we’re sure you do, too. Whether it's a natural disaster like a wildfire, hurricane, flood, or sudden health crisis, we will face situations beyond our control.
While it’s impossible to predict every disaster that might unfold, we wanted to share some steps you can take to ensure you’re as prepared as possible—financially, emotionally, and physically. Having a game plan for managing disaster can help minimize the immediate impact and speed up recovery, so let’s explore some ways to prepare. Ideally, these never have to be used, but if they ever do, you’ll be in a better place to react and recover.
Build a Financial Safety Net: An emergency fund is your first line of defense. However, in addition to a general emergency fund, review your insurance policies to ensure you’re adequately covered for various disasters—especially if you live in an area prone to flooding, wildfires, or earthquakes. Standard homeowners’ insurance might not cover flood or fire damage, so you might need a separate insurance policy.
Assemble an Emergency Kit: Prepare a grab-and-go kit with essentials like water, non-perishable food, first aid supplies, medications, important documents, a flashlight, extra batteries, cash, and a phone charger. Store these items in a waterproof container and update the kit annually. Consider having several in different locations just in case (vehicles, different exits, upstairs/downstairs). Have life-saving tools around the home and in vehicles and ensure everyone knows how to use them.
Plan Your Evacuation: Know your evacuation routes and identify where you’ll go—whether to a family member’s home or a shelter. Ensure all household members are familiar with the plan and rehearse it. Know who grabs what, exit points, safety tools, and safety practices for different types of disasters.
Protect Critical Documents and Keepsakes: Keep necessary paperwork—like IDs, insurance policies, and medical records—in a secure, waterproof bag and back them up digitally. Cloud storage ensures you can access them anywhere, even if devices are lost or damaged. Many people lose old family photos and videos during emergencies, which are unreplaceable; consider getting everything digitally archived.
Prepare Your Pets: If you have pets, research shelters or boarding options that accept them in case of an immediate need. Ensure all pets are microchipped and consider GPS tracking. Post pet stickers in windows for first responders so they know to retrieve pets. Create an evacuation and preparedness plan for pets for both when you’re present and if you’re not.
Organize Your Information: After a disaster, it’ll be time to focus on recovery. Part of that will include having access to the information you need to access your accounts, essential contacts, legal documents, etc. If your paper files are gone and your electronic devices are destroyed, this can be a challenge, so be sure you have a document filed online that you can access by memory or safeguarded with a trusted source.
Occasionally, we get a stark reminder of how things can go sideways quickly. But it also provides a grace period to put forethought into navigating the unimaginable. Start by thinking through what could happen and prepare for those instances as best you can. Chances are the preparations you put together for the scenarios you’re able to plan for will help in the case of those we can’t plan for as well.