Documentation

[Low Branch]

Documentation is an important part of prepping for a disaster scenario that does not involve the total collapse of the global society. Documentation will enable you to have access to everything that is you, and allow you to return home (not the physical home, but rather the mental one) with ease. You will have everything you need to identify your work history, financial history, medical history, and educational history. This will allow you to recoup cost from insurance, get a new job (if you must relocate), and transfer education. I have spent a lot of time ensuring that we will not lose our life should we move after a disaster (earthquake or hurricane is the most likely scenario where we will move). Probably the best single resource for the importance of documentation is Listening to Katrina. I have used a few of his lists and created several of my own to make my BOB and document protection systems. He has a workbook with Word documents here. Take a look at this wonderful site and make your own lists. He says it best with this quote, "MAKE THE DETAILED LIST, DAMN IT! LAZY PEOPLE DO NOT PROSPER!"

 

[thebrasilian]

Another great topic. Currently our important info is in the fridge. It the heaviest and most fire proof thing we have right now.

I'm not a big fan of keeping this information electronically...at least not on a hard-drive. Maybe a thumb drive would be better. My thinking is these are very susceptible to failure due to: water, temp, shock, EMP, static, chemicals and you need to have power... Best is to have copies in a home vault, bank vault or other safe storage.

 

[Frost]

Thumb Drives have a finite number of read and writes.

 

[Low Branch]

Thumb drives are also cheap and readily available. If there comes a time where power is not available I doubt that the contents will matter much.

 

[Frost]

I can remember when a meg of ram cost more than a gig does today.
Thumb drives are an incredible bargain.
That being said if you can't run the computer due to lack of power they have 0 survival value.
Even an empty soda bottle would be more useful.

 

[thebrasilian]

In todays world power is a consideration. You and your area can be without power for weeks. Large area events: Hurricane, Tsunami, major earthquake, flood, major meteor strike...
Small area event: Tornado, hail, dam break, flood, land slide...
Major ones would be of more concern. That's why I'm more intent on paper copies and account numbers written down.

 

[Low Branch]

The means of having the documentation really are nothing more than a preference: The important point is to have the documentation.

 

[thebrasilian]

I got it...burn to a cd or DVD. Somewhat durable and the information is hard to destroy.

 

[Pops]

Even scanned documents don't take up much room on a disk.
They make small CD's, about the size of a 3.5" floppy disk that'll hold about 200 megs of data if I remember correctly.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00005NHGP/?tag=palmettoshooters-20

I've used these to mail small documents, picks of the vacation, etc.
They' work well. There is a small indent in most CD-roms that is designed to hold them.
They don't work too well with the cd players that pull the disk into a slot rather than ejecting a tray.

Pops

 

[Frost]

If memory serves cd-roms and dvds you make yourself have a life span of ten years.