01 June 2011

The tornado in Joplin, Missouri, hit close to home―one of our former staff members lives there. Fortunately, she and her family are fine. Their home is located seven miles south of where the tornado hit and, secure in their basement, they were safe from the flying debris. As with many people, the tornado prompted a lot of discussion “around the water cooler” in the Smart Investor offices. Cathy Keck shared some wisdom she acquired from her father, a survivor of the Great Depression.

As I was watching the devastation wreaked by the tornado in Joplin, Missouri, I started thinking of what I would take with me if I only had minutes of warning before my house was destroyed by a tornado, flood, tsunami, fire, hurricane, or combination of natural disasters.

I keep an emergency backpack in the coat closet by the front door. I picked this up after the Loma Pieta earthquake in ‘89, about the same time we added earthquake insurance. It is bright red and has EMERGENCY written in bold white letters. I haven’t changed a thing in the pack; I imagine the energy bars are pretty stale and the batteries are dead. I plan on updating the backpack this weekend.

But what about my financial assets and information that I would need to get back on my feet? What would I need? Here is a list of what I plan on adding to my emergency backpack this weekend:

• A small stash of cash. I won’t count on an ATM operating, or even getting to one. I remember that my dad always kept a wad of cash in a tin can buried in the yard (really), “just in case” he would say. Having lived through the depression as a young man, he wasn’t comfortable unless he had a few extra dollars hidden away, “just in case.”
• A paper list of my bank account numbers, and my retirement and investment accounts.
• A list of insurance policies, including auto, homeowners, earthquake, life insurance, as well as my agent’s address and number. Now is a good time to review all those policies and make sure I have the coverage I need.
• A copy of my power of attorney, my health directive and my will.
• A list of telephone numbers of people important to me (now I just pull up a name from the cell phone and dial, I don’t have most of the numbers memorized).
• A battery operated radio.
• I keep my cell phone and wallet in the same place every night, so that should be easy to grab. My emergency backpack has one of those hand crank battery chargers. I’ll add a cell phone charger. My wallet has my credit cards, insurance cards, a little cash, and my AAA card, just in case I need a tow.

We check our smoke detectors and change the batteries twice a year. We’ll add the backpack to the list of things to check.

We can’t prepare for every emergency, but gathering this information won’t take long and we’ll all be a little more prepared, just in case.