TAKING CHARGE
COME ON AMERICA SHOW YOUR STUFF NOW
Call the American Red Cross NOW!
The Red Cross is a great place to start:You can find your local chapter here to learn what you can do:
FALL BACKWARD
Remember Day light savings time end tonight. Set your clock back. Also now id the time to change the batteries in your Smoke Alarms.
HOW TO PREPARE FOR ONE REALLY QUICK GETAWAY
I saw this article awhile ago and kept it so that I could post it one day down the road, well that day has come.
This will be a 3-4 part series and I hope people will find it as useful as I have. I'll be adding additional info and resources that I have come across and will pass on. I see this project as being a three part process.
The first part comes out of what happened in the Terri Shiavo incident of last spring. It points out the need to get your final wishes in order. You should want to control how you will be taken care of should you not be able to make those discussions. That goes for your property as well.
The second part deals with being prepared in the event of an emergency, for you and for your families health and subsistence during a disaster.
And finally the third leg is the part that I'll start with, what you need to get together for a quick getaway. By following this and using it as a guide you will build something that will give you piece of mind and more importantly help your family in ways that are hard to measure.
So with that here we go on Part 1 of 4 What is the first thing you will grab from your home if your house floods, catches on fire or comes tumbling down in an earthquake? Family photos? The pets? The Hummel figurines? It probably will not be your financial and medical records, the very things you will need to rebuild your life after a disaster. If you are like most people, you have documents stashed in various places throughout your home, perhaps some under lock and key. And with your mind racing as danger hits, you are not going to have the time or wherewithal to figure out which ones you need. In any case, your financial and medical records would be such a large and unwieldy pile that you would just say forget about it, grab Fluffy and scramble out of there. Indeed, that is probably your reaction any time someone suggests you get your records organized. But wait. Do not run away yet. New technology is making this tedious task less odious, and surprisingly, it is not that expensive. All told, you can secure your records in a weekend afternoon. Even better, doing all this has a wonderful side effect: it can put you in better financial shape to survive a disaster because you will end up a lot smarter about how you spend and save money. For instance, one of the first things to do is compile a list of where everything is - account numbers and the locations of important documents. The list will help you or anyone in your family locate things you need for the insurance adjuster or relief worker. This is really the "if hit by a bus" list that financial planners have been recommending you compile for your heirs. If you think of the list that way, you will be reminded of your mortality and you will not want to write it. But think of the families displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita or by California wildfires, and the psychological barrier collapses. The list becomes a much easier sell now, said Brent Neiser, a director for the National Endowment for Financial Education. "It forces you to think," he said. Part 2 tomorrow. * "This is like deja vu all over again.". . . Yogi Berra By DAMON DARLIN
BAD DAY, WEEK, MONTH OR YEAR
CHARLIE BROWN
PRETTY GOOD JOKE
An Old Farmer's Advice:
