While it’s comfortable to assume you’ll never have to face natural disaster, there is always the possibility. With so much unknown, it can be hard to prepare for different types of natural disasters. Luckily, there are steps you can take to ensure your finances, home, and family can bounce back as easily as possible.
The Cost of a Natural Disaster
Natural disasters can come in many shapes and sizes, including hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, and fires. Each has its own dangers and potential costs, including property damage, medical expenses, and loss of income. There are also less tangible impacts, such as coping with the emotional and financial challenges of a natural disaster. As you consider how to prepare for a natural disaster, keep these potential damages in mind as you create your emergency preparedness plan.
Financial Preparations
Having insurance is vital to prepare for unexpected or dangerous situations, and natural disasters are no different. If you don’t already have insurance, you should consider getting one or all of the following types. And if you do, you should review your policy to ensure you understand what’s covered and what isn’t, as well as the associated costs.
- Home Insurance or Renter’s Insurance: Many standard home and renter’s insurance policies will cover damage from fire, lightning, wind, hail, and volcanic eruptions. It’s less common for those policies to cover mudslides, earthquakes, and floods. You can look up more information about flood insurance, specifically, through this page for the National Flood Insurance Program.
- Health Insurance: Due to the potential for injury during a natural disaster, it’s important to have health insurance to help cover the cost should something happen to you.
- Auto Insurance: Comprehensive auto insurance coverage is meant to cover things outside your control, which includes “acts of god” like natural disasters. Comprehensive coverage is generally quite a bit more expensive than standard car insurance but can be worth it if you live in an area frequently impacted by natural disasters.
- Life Insurance: A death caused by a natural disaster is often covered by life insurance policies, but it’s wise to double-check the specifics of your policy or the policy you’re considering. If you or a loved one is victim of a natural disaster, life insurance can help cover funeral or medical bills.
Build an Emergency Fund
An emergency fund is one of the most important things you can have when it comes to being ready for a natural disaster, as you never know what you may need. We recommend that you have an emergency fund large enough to cover at least 3-6 months of essential expenses in a liquid (meaning easily accessible, rather than an investment account that you can’t withdraw from without penalties) savings account. If you live in an area prone to natural disasters, you may consider creating an emergency fund that’s even larger so that you can support your essential expenses and pay for any necessary repairs should something happen.
Unsure how to begin saving up such a large amount? Our financial wellness partner, Banzai, can help you create a plan to reach your goal.
The U.S. government also recommends having some cash on hand, as ATMs or debit and credit cards may not work during an emergency. You should not keep your entire emergency fund in cash, as there’s too high of a risk of it being lost, stolen or damaged, but a few hundred (depending on your family size, location, and needs) set aside in a safe location could be very helpful in a pinch.
Create an Emergency Financial First Aid Kit
A first aid kit is meant to be an easily accessible resource for anything you need in a medical emergency. A financial first aid kit is the same, but for your important financial and personal documents and resources. Should a natural disaster happen, you want to be able to access these things easily. Some of these items include…
- Social security cards
- Passports
- Lease or rental agreements
- Household contacts
- Tax statements
- Medical information
The government recommends having two versions of your financial first aid kit: a paper version and a digital version. A paper version can be essential if you can’t access digital files in a disaster. These could be stored in a fire and waterproof safe, a safe deposit box, or somewhere similar. Your digital version should be password protected with a strong, unique password, and stored on a flash or hard drive or a secure online storage service. Since this information could be dangerous in the wrong hands, it’s vital that the information is stored safely. You should take every precaution to ensure only you and a few trusted friends or family members can access it.
You can see the full, in depth guide to building your emergency financial first aid kit from the government, including editable checklists of what items you should include, here.
Other Preparations
Make a Plan
When a disaster strikes, you’ll want to be ready with a plan in place. Take some time to read through the recommendations for specific kinds of natural disasters on Ready.gov. It provides guidance on things as small as a power outage (keep freezers and fridge doors closed to help trap in as much cold as possible, etc.) and as large as a flood or wildfire (know your evacuation zone and route, etc.).
Having a plan is key to ensuring that, should something happen, everyone knows what to do and where to go, especially if you aren’t able to communicate with other members of your family. Some things to consider including in your plan:
Where will you go if you must evacuate your home?
It’s best to choose one place within walking distance of your home and one farther away in case the entire area needs to be evacuated.
Who will oversee which tasks during an emergency?
For example, you may decide that one person will pick up kids from school or daycare if they aren’t home and another will grab important documents and pets.
Where can you shelter in place?
In certain emergencies, it will be safer to stay indoors. Plan for where in your house you’ll go and communicate with anyone living in the home, including children or grandparents. You should also talk to children about where they can go if they are at school or daycare and consider where you’ll go at work. The specifics will vary depending on the type of emergency. For example, during an earthquake, you’ll want to get under a desk or table and avoid areas where things could fall on you, and during a tornado, you’ll want to go into an interior room without windows on the lowest floor, ideally a basement.
What are the safe places in your community?
If you live in an area frequently impacted by natural disasters, your community has likely set up or designated specific safe areas for emergencies. For example, areas prone to flooding likely have designated high points that they recommend residents go to in an emergency. Check your city or county’s website to find more information. That way, should something happen, you aren’t trying to find this information while in the process of preparing to evacuate.
Create an Emergency Kit
It’s helpful to have an on-hand emergency kit that can support you and your family’s most essential needs for at least 3 full days (sometimes called a 72-hour kit) in an emergency. This emergency supply kit should include things like flashlights, a battery powered radio, first aid supplies, food and water, blankets, and sanitary supplies. The government has provided a more in-depth list of items to fill your kit here.
The essentials of your kit should be easy to travel with; a backpack or other easily portable container is ideal. Your kit should be kept in a place that’s easy to get to in an emergency. Make sure everyone living in your house knows where your emergency kit is. Since the kit will contain perishables such as food and medication, it’s important to check the expiration dates and replace spoiled items a few times a year. You can also find a pre-made emergency kit or look for specialized food and water meant to have long shelf life so that you don’t have to replace it as often.
While you may not keep these items in your kit, there are plenty of other things you can have around the house to help in an emergency, such as fire extinguishers on every level of the home or ladders for upper levels in case someone needs to evacuate through a window. Consider what could happen in the case of a natural disaster and search for any items that may make it easier for you, your family, and your property to stay safe.
Planning for a natural disaster can feel unnecessary or scary, but it’s always better to be over prepared than under. Your finances, property, and safety aren’t worth risking by leaving anything up to chance. By following the steps above, you can feel more confident that, no matter what happens, you have an emergency preparedness plan in place.
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