Taking a day to prepare

The news this week has been devastating. Storm after storm demolishing communities, destroying homes, killing people. Families begin their days in a normal life, preparing for school, work, fun... and end the day in a nightmare of death and destruction.

But life goes on... for those injured in a tornado, hospitals and doctors are still going to ask - do you have insurance? Can I see your card?

For those who lost loved ones - where is the insurance policy? Who should be notified? Where are the bank accounts?

For those whose homes or businesses were destroyed - where are those insurance policies? What did you own? Are there lists, photographs? How do you begin to make a claim? How do you start over?

You've survived. How do you live? What medications do you take? Where are they? How do you get more? It's cold, rainy. How do you stay warm? What will you wear?

Now it's before the disaster. Your community is in a high "Tor:Con" index. The NWS has issued a watch. Now it's a warning. Now the sirens are going off. Where are you? Where are your kids? Where is your husband? Other family? WHERE WILL YOU GO? WHAT WILL YOU DO?

I don't know the answers to any of those questions. So today, after this blog post, my day is going to be spent taking pictures (I'm going to have to clean house first!), finding and scanning documents, making a plan.

Won't you join me?

There are resources to help you get started. Here is the "Next of Kin Education Project"

Here is the Ready.Gov Preparedness page.

Here is the Weather.com Life and Safety page.

My friends over at Chasing 4 Life have great resources. You can download free information, but you should also check out the links to the Red Book (How to develop a personal and community preparedness plan), or MyInfo911 - a cloud based service that keeps all of your information in one place, that can be accessed anywhere.

That should be enough to get started. Now... clear your calendar and DO THIS!