You're not looking at this in the way I am. Nobody expects (or should expect) "the authorities" to plug your USB drive into their computer and take what is found there as positive identification. However, the encrypted data is very useful for individuals involved in a crisis. You've lost your dog in the paniced transportation mess? Why not print out a picture from your USB drive using a friends computer, the library computer ... not from "the authorities computer". Need to find the phone number and account info so you can call your credit card issuer to cancel your account? Why not have that info encrypted on a USB drive? Need to locate the VIN and license plate number from your car so you can report it to the police as stolen? Store that stuff on your USB drive. You would need to find a computer to host the USB drive on, certainly. But the authorities are not the only people with computers. You could even buy yourself a new/used computer after the disaster if you really need your own to work with (and yuo just might).