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.