Lately I've been going over our Emergency Binder and realized I need to add a few more sections:

Section 12: Make/Model/Serial #s for electronics, vehicles, firearms, etc

Section 13: Work for resumes, work history, employer contact info, HR dept, benefits

Section 13 is especially important if I find myself fleeing the ruins of Houston to someplace else still intact and hiring. I remember reading how a lot of the Katrina refugees had problems getting work in Houston because they didn't have the resume information, their references were unreachable, and their work history was unverifiable. Which leads me to another post...

-Blast

with everyone's life collected on the web someplace,by someone,maybe you would have a back up to your binder there.
i'm sure glad my only concern is the tiny possibility of getting lost in the woods.

Glad you posted, Thanks. I went back and read your Emergency Binder thread. I am going to put one together. One thing I am going to include is a section on tradesmen, Plumbers, Electricians, AC folks etc.

Why not just make this a set of PDF files and put it on a USB key or an SD card? The last thing I need in my kit is 6 lbs of paper and binder.

I call mine a "Home DR Plan" which sound smuch like the <application name> DR plan documents I have at work (IT) so it seems a lot more acceptable and less survivalisty.

I do it more electronic for example:
#1. All those numbers are stored in my cell phone and the paper copy is just a export/backup of those. You can download a popular tool called bitpim which will recognize most cell phones and let you export from the phone. That way all those numbers are in the binder and in the phone.

#3. The FEMA floodplane maps may be useful there as well. My old home was no where near water but a low enough elevaton to need flood insurnace. The rules were revised in the mid 90's and under a certain elevation needed flood insurnace. If you bought/mortgaged your home before then you could be in a floodplane and not even know it.

#5. Since I utilize a mixture of paper and electronic tools I put my Garmin CD/DVD's in a cd sleeve that goes in my binder. I run open source software mostly but the maps are software I have bought and if I need to load more on the GPS want to have them.

#9. You should print the list of frequencies in your area from radio reference, even if you don't have a scanner someone else your working with might. This will be local stuff, police, fire, ems even the local power and gas companies.

#12. Put those listings in a sheet protector then put receipts for them in the sheet protector with the list, if you are with a larghe insurance company they won't replace things unless you have the receipts.

#13. I would add medical records. I have a spreadsheet listing all the times my kids have been to the doctor and dentist and the papers from all their shots. Think similat to a NOLA situation where your doctor office is destroyed or the kids need shot records to start the new school. I do the same as with my inventory and put those in a sheet protector and put the doctor paperwork in with them.

I've though about a worst case scenario where somehting happened to me and my wife and the kids were elsewhere, I have put together a booklet for them, just used a simple report cover with some sheet protectors and cd and business card holders that fit in it. Those hold all their papers, have an inventory list and receipts, medical records, cd with those burned to it and things like their social security cards put in the business card holder.

I have now some land that my parents have deeded over to me since they are getting older, they wanted to take care of it now rather than after they are gone. Those are on legal size paper. I'm finding it difficult to find a nice binder and small quantities of sheet protectors in legal size. I found a box of sheet protectors but its a box of 100 for $30, I only need like 10. I can;t find a simple zipper binder in that size either, seems like it would be almost easier to have them shrunk to normal size then pay to have those norerized.

I don't have any contacts for plumbers and such since I've never used any not sure what to do there.

Thats how mine is, a group of electronic documents and scanned papers then printed out and put on paper with the electronic copy on a cd inside the binder.

I'm still considering that but I do like the idea of being able to access all the data without a computer. Especially the phone numbers and maps.

-Blast

I did mine on the computer and then print it out and substitute the original documents for the printed scans when it goes in the binder. That makes updating things like the pone numbers or the inventory easier, just add a line to the spreadsheet, print and stick it in.

My first exposure to your emergency binder, Blast. And as was said so often then, "Wow!"


Re: electronic storage: Electronic form is fine as a backup method, but no one should rely on it for their primary copy. Think about how fast storage methods change. Do you have any 3.5" disks laying around anywhere? Does your computer even HAVE a 3.5" drive?

Sure flash drives and CDs/DVDs are all the rage right now, but what about in ten years? Ten years ago, how many of you had even HEARD of a flash drive? Or had a CD burner in your home system? And how are you going to read a thumb drive or a DVD while you're on the road? What if you were about to plug in your laptop for recharging, so it only has about 15 min left on the battery?

Electronic storage is easy to update, but for safety, print it out and put it somewhere you can reach quickly, that EVERY responsible family member knows about.

The reason I say to use electronic for primary is ease of editing. You don't make the dvd/cd/flash your only copy, its just another backup in case you can't get to your computer/laptop.

I actually used flash storage and burned cd's over 10 years ago, my oldest backup/archive cd is from 1998 and was still readable a couple years ago when I reburned all the data to dvd.

I disagree. I have digital photos that I took with a Sony Mavica - it used a 3.5" floppy. I have email messages I wrote on an Apple Power PC 650 using OS 7. I have videos I shot on VHS in 1986 and I have files I created three years ago on a version of Visio that I don't use anymore. None of these files is any less accessible to me than the day I created them.

Media comes and goes, but prudent data management lasts forever. Yes, now and then I need to transcode something (for example, I had some pictures from a "Quicktake" Kodak digital camera that uses odd compression and they needed to be converted to standard JPG).

I feel far more comfortable with some RTF documents on a FAT formatted USB drive that is backed up in 5 places automatically via my dropbox.com account than I ever would with a stack of papers in once place only. Paper is very handy for a lot of things, but for me, this isn't one of them.

As to the point of NOLA and that scenario - it's important to note that while some records were lost, nobody - and I mean nobody -was unable to get medical care as a result of lacking medical records.

Ok... going to jump in here and make (for me) some observations. I like/agree with having all this good information on the computer and doing backups of it. There is no down side to that as long as I have a non-electronic way of getting at the information as well.

With that said, the last statement is because I will run into situations where "paper is king" and there is no way to use the USB drive or the CD is damaged or the backups are unavailable. Key and/or vital information is hard copy and updated as needed and ideally kept in duplicate in two different places. So in an emergency where power is very limited and electronic access is too (remember the cell system being overwhelmed in NYC) and the ability to "get at" my electronic data isn't available (at least for the time of the immediate emergency) I can go to "paper" for the key facts and figures. This is why all my appointments and calendar stuff is in Outlook and all duplicated in my paper and pencil DayTimer too.

I have a wonderful GPS system in my car but I still have the state issue road map in the glove box too. I keep paper copies of my local area and the areas I will be in - the county map of my home county, the county map of my Mother-in-law's place etc. I have found that the GPS will tell you where you are but can really be bad at helping you figure out a new place to go... another situation where I need info NOW and can't be trying to find a computer to read a disk or despare as I watch my iPod/iPhone display fade into nothing as the sun sets and no electricity is to be found for it.

- A Blast wanna be!

Treeware is a inconvenient physical storage media to be sure, but when it has to work regardless of power, heat, cold, EM or legacy support, it can't be beat.

Thats what I was trying to get at is that electronic data is not dependent upon a single media type. I have documents that came from 5.25 Commodore 64 floppy disks from the 80's, were converted to something on the Amiga in the early 90's then word perfect the old versions of MS word up to current in OpenOffice.

Starting with a digital copy makes edits and changes easier since you don't have to redo a whole page,just make the edit and reprint.

Something that might be worth adding that i do this time of year is a current credit report. You may need to rent/buy a new place to live for say a NOLA situation and walking in and saying you don't know if your credit is good or walking in and saying your credit score is 775 will get a very different response. Even if you don't need/want any credit remember things like insurance rates are tied to the credit score or you may want to insure no one else is using your credit.

However a bunch of "Katrina kids" had to get re-immunized with all their shots before the Houston school district would let them attend public school.

-Blast

Thats what I was thinking of. Not having prior medical records and having to redo everything because of it.

Eugene, call an attorney's office and ask if they have anything like what you need, and ask if you could buy a few from them.

Sue

I actually ordered a whole box, found one for $20 finally. I figured if I had to have a few legal sized I might as well print a few others that size as well, fit a little more on the page and maybe cut down a few pages.

I'm finding it rather difficult to locate office type supplies in legal size, kind of annoying. I was looking for a new binder and prefer the zip around type so if I drop it papers won't slide out of the sheet protectors. I managed to fine one
http://www.raineinc.com/CatItemDetail.as...&Item=0037B

Looks a bit expensive, I wonder since we have some with .mil experience what they think of raine products. Thats assuming a civi can buy them.

I have also added sections to my "Blast Binder". I'll write up an updated "list of Contents" when I get home.

One section that I have added is: "In Case of Death". This lists each person in the household, their disposition wishes, and a list of Insurance Policies, numbers, amounts, etc. I have had each member of the family initial the entry concerning their wishes.

That is in addition to our "Last Will and Testaments".

I also have an "Intel" and "Contingency Plans" Binders to provide guidance to my wife in case something happens while I'm gone.

Great idea. You sent your binder to a few of us last year, and I, for one, have dissected it, and used the idea for my own prep documentation.

Thanks for all the hard work you put into it...

Dave in Largo, FL