Are You Financially Prepared for an Emergency?

Being ready for a disaster is more than storing water and supplies.  You also need to be financially ready.  Starting early and having adequate insurance, a plan to pay your bills and access to your important records and accounts will help you get back on your feet faster and avoid problems with your credit when you need it most.

Hikingware.com asks these pertinent questions:

How much cash do you keep in your home?

How much cash should you keep in your home?

Have you backed up all your important financial records and information, so if they're physically lost during a disaster they will still be on file and accessible?

Do you have a will?

Are all your insurance premiums paid up?

The Emergency Financial First Aid Kit (EFFAK), a joint publication from Operation Hope and the FEMA Citizen Corps, can help you prepare now. Use the EFFAK to identify your important documents, medical records, and household contracts. When completing the kit, be sure to include pictures or a video of your home and your belongings and keep all of your documents in a safe space.

In addition to using the EFFAK, these other steps can help you safeguard your assets and recover quicker from an emergency or a disaster:

1. Download phone applications that can help during emergencies: Use the FEMA phone application to access to disaster preparedness, response and recovery resources including disaster assistance.
2. Enroll in Go Direct to minimize disruptions to receiving any federal benefits you are now getting or may be eligible to receive.
3. Plan ahead of time to recover: The USDA has created great resources to help getyou started, including Recovery After Disaster: The Family Financial Toolkit and the Disaster Recovery Log.

As to the question of how much cash you should keep on hand for emergencies, the best answer is simply to use common sense and extreme caution.

First and foremost, of course, is that you should never let anyone outside of your spouse, your adult children, and perhaps a very, very trusted friend, know that you keep ANY money in your home. To do otherwise is simply to invite home invasion and robbery.

Next, figure out the absolute minimum amount of cash you'd need to buy necessities and take care of repairs if you could not access your bank account or get to an ATM for six months. That is the amount experts like Suze Orman suggest you should keep on hand.

If you're able to invest in a good wall safe, do so. Otherwise, U.S. News & World Report suggests these four hidey holes for your money:

1. Inside false infrastructure. Constructing fake fixtures around the house, like a drain pipe in the basement, return air vent in the living room or power outlet on a bedroom wall, gives the appearance of working household parts, but in fact, acts as a facade for hiding your emergency money inside.

2. Buried outside. What better way to hide money inside your house than hiding it outside? Pick a reasonably conspicuous spot in your yard or garden to bury your money, and carefully protected, nobody will find it – except you, as long as you remember where you dug. Zip cash up in bags, put it in glass jars and/or wrap the bills in plastic or a small tarp.

3. Disguised and dispersed. Sometimes, hiding your money in less conspicuous places can be the most inconspicuous hiding spot that a thief might overlook. Are you a devout bibliophile? Hollowing out a book to stuff some bills into is an outdated method, but not for anyone with an extensive library of tomes floor to ceiling, where the "money book" is hidden among hundreds of other books and more difficult to find. What about hiding some cash in an envelope in a box of blank envelopes? Don't stash your cash in the freezer; it can develop frostburn and actually decompose when thawed out!

Your Children in a Disaster – Do They Know What to Do?

Disasters affect children differently than they do adults. Hikingware wants you not only to be prepared for a disaster by having an adequate supply of food and water, but also, if you have children, to be aware of their special needs:

Children’s bodies are different from adults’ bodies.

• They are more likely to get sick or severely injured.
• They breathe in more air per pound of body weight than adults do.
• They have thinner skin, and more of it per pound of body weight (higher surface-to-mass ratio).
• Fluid loss (e.g. dehydration, blood loss) can have a bigger effect on children because they have less fluid in their bodies.
• They are more likely to lose too much body heat.
• They spend more time outside and on the ground. They also put their hands in their mouths more often than adults do.

Children need help from adults in an emergency.

• They don’t fully understand how to keep themselves safe.
• Older children and adolescents may take their cues from others.
• Young children may freeze, cry, or scream.
• They may not be able to explain what hurts or bothers them.
• They are more likely to get the care they need when they have parents or other caregivers around.
• Laws require an adult to make medical decisions for a child.
• There is limited information on the ways some illnesses and medicines affect children. Sometimes adults will have to make decisions with the information they have.

Mental stress from a disaster can be harder on children.

• They feel less of a sense of control.
• They understand less about the situation.
• They have fewer experiences bouncing back from hard situations.

Teach your child one parent's cell-phone number or a good contact number. Starting at around age 5, kids are developmentally ready to memorize a 7- or 10-digit number. Practice with your child and turn the phone number into a song, like a modified version of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."

Designate an out-of-state contact. This will be a resource and point person for your family to call.

Choose a location other than your home where your family can meet. You'll need to go there in case of a fire or an earthquake, for example. Your meeting place might be a local park, school, or shelter. Walk to the site with your child so he knows exactly how to get there.

Designate a trusted friend or family member who can pick up your kid at child care or school if you are unable to get there in a disaster situation. Be sure that you give official permission to release your child to that person.

Make a card with your plan for each adult's wallet. Include contact names, your emergency location, and the out-of-state contact number. Put a copy in your school-age child's backpack, and discuss the plan with your kids.

Inform caregivers and nearby relatives of your plan. Be sure to give a copy of your plan to your child's teacher too.

Write a letter for your child to have in case of an emergency and leave it with child care or school.

If you're not good at texting, improve your skills. When cell- phone signal strength goes down, texting often still works because it uses less bandwidth and network capacity.

Look into how at-risk your own area may be. Contact your local fire department and school to inquire about specific threats to your neighborhood such as unstable trees, streets prone to flooding, or transportation challenges.

After gathering that info, it's essential to figure out how your neighbors can work together in the event of an emergency. For example, if you're a nurse or a teacher, you may have a comprehensive first-aid kit available, and if a carpenter lives on your street, he might have tools or equipment that would be useful in an emergency. Pool your expertise and resources! It will ultimately save lives.

Probably the most important thing to remember when dealing with children in an emergency is that children act as a mirror to adult feelings, attitudes and emotions around them. So try to stay calm, reasonable, and, if at all possible, even upbeat about the situation. Don’t mislead children into thinking everything is perfectly fine, but be careful how much of the truth you dole out to them – they don’t need to know everything, and they will need reassurance more than anything else.