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Certainly, your first concerns in an emergency should be your safety and basic needs such as shelter, food, and water. But you also should be ready to deal with financial challenges, such as how to pay for supplies or temporary housing if necessary.
If you had only a few moments to evacuate your home—and were away for several days or even weeks—would you have access to cash, banking services, and the personal identification you need to conduct your day-to-day financial life?
The FDIC offers some sound advice that can help you plan appropri- ately and be better prepared financially should a disaster strike.
What to Have Ready
Consider keeping the following documents, bank products, and other items in a secure place and readily available in an emergency. (Refer to Volume One: Understanding Your Debt Management Program, Chapter 10, page 71, on Preparing for a Natural Disaster and Other Emergencies.)
Forms of identification: These primarily include driver’s licenses (or state ID cards for non-drivers), insurance cards, Social Security cards, passports, and birth certificates. These documents will be crucial if you or your family should need to rebuild lost records or otherwise prove to a government agency, a bank, or other business that you are who you claim to be.
Your checkbook with enough blank checks and deposit slips to last a month or so: Your need for checks will vary depending on how long you may be displaced or how often you write checks. Even if you rarely or never write checks, at least consider having a copy of a check or your checking account number handy. That’s because, in an emergency, you can authorize an important payment by providing the recipient (for example, an insurance company) your checking account number over the phone.
When Disaster Happens