Items Earthquake Survival Kits Cannot Help With
An earthquake does not last long in the larger scheme of things. But many a time, when an earthquake strikes, it is only the beginning of an ordeal. The earthquake is often followed by aftershocks that make your house unsafe. You are then required to get out in the open regardless of the weather outside. The earthquake could strike you next minute and before you know it, you could be taken away from some of your most prized possessions at home for safety reasons. Then, there is this threat of a Tsunami if you are located somewhere along the coast. In such cases, you may have very little time to pack your valuables and rush to a higher ground. This is not all. There are always items that can spark a fire at home - short circuits (very likely during earthquakes), cooking oil,etc and so it is always likely that you could lose a lot of valuables if you have not taken the right precautions.
While the survival kits for earthquakes take care of minimizing damages to property inside your home, not much can be done when the property in question is something that can get destroyed very easily - like a legal document or business documents. Given the risk to such items, it is always advisable to consider storing these items in a fireproof safe. The items you should consider include your wills, property documents, birth certificates, jewelry, legal documents (home and business related), cash and valuable photo and video albums. Basically, anything that cannot be brought back from elsewhere needs to go here. This will ensure that you have enough things to cope through the tough time instead of having to start afresh.
Earthquake Emergency Preparedness - Backup
Since the aftermath of an earthquake is often uncertain, there is always the likelihood of you vacating your place in a hurry. Whenever this happens, get ready to lose or misplace a lot of valuable things. One very common item to lose is your house or car keys. Other things that you are likely to lose in the circumstances are your suitcases, documents and items of nostalgic value. The good thing is that a lot of these things can be duplicated in normal circumstances. One of the most important things that people must ensure is that they have a duplicate copy of these important items and documents stored safely in a vault or safe in a bank or other places where such lockers can be purchased. These lockers do not cost much, but become highly useful in such emergency circumstances like earthquakes. But do remember to also have the keys and other forms of identity that will be needed to unlock these locker. Talk to the customer care to learn alternate ways of proving ownership to the lockers in times of emergency. This knowledge will come handy while you are forced to take a split second decision on the documents or keys you need to carry during an earthquake so that you can unlock these other items that are stored safely.