Do you have a Plan-B in place to counter natural disasters? Assure the safety of your family and your important assets by taking note of these important points!
With Kerala and parts of Karnataka (Coorg) sustaining one of the worst floods in the past 100 years, it’s been a scary few days watching Mother Nature unleash her fury. With cases of loss of life, property damage and dislocation, the nation has put together rescue teams from the Armed Forces to help with relief services. Voluntary citizens have also contributed to flood relief in many ways. However, there’s a lot to be done before Kerala and Coorg can rebuild and recover. When you watch footage of the calamity on the news, you can’t help but wonder, “Am I prepared to face or manage an emergency situation?”
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You can only imagine the panic that could engulf you when you’re in danger and have only about 10 minutes to chart out your survival strategy. This is why it’s always wise to plan ahead and have an evacuation strategy in place before something untoward presents itself at your doorstep.
Some may see this as a paranoid reaction to the floods, given that they’re in the clear. However, the thing about natural disasters is you never know when one is going to strike. Safeguarding your assets as well as your family from the adversity of a natural disaster is something you ought to prioritise.
Additional Reading: Protect Yourself From Natural Calamities With Home Insurance
In this article, we’ve compiled a list of important factors you need to incorporate as a part of your backup plan. Let’s take a look!
Take a stock of your home inventory
This will go a long way in helping you claim insurance, assuming that you’re covered under a comprehensive Home Insurance plan. Keep in mind that you need to do your homework and find an appropriate Home Insurance cover for your requirement.
Read About Home Insurance Policies
Save all your important documents digitally
Any physical document runs the risk of getting washed away in an event like a flood, so, for starters, you can take a backup of each of your important documents online. Soft copies can be uploaded to a public cloud; that way, even if your laptop or mobile phone gets damaged due to a flood, your files will be secure.
Try to set predefined evacuation routes
Analyse the various entries and exits of your home. Once you’re done with fixing your exit routes from home, carry out the same exercise for your town or city. According to where you’re currently located, you’ll need to find out the best route out of your town. Of course, one can’t predict how a natural disaster will occur, but it’s always good to have safe options.
Pack snacks and supplies
You never know how long you’re going to be stranded if a flood hits your neighbourhood. This is why it’s best to stock up on preserved food in case of emergencies. While you’re at it, you should also secure a drinking water supply and other basic necessities as part of your evacuation plan.
Other things you’d want to carry include mobile chargers, spare keys, power banks – all these will come in handy once you want to re-establish communication and go back to normal life once danger has been averted.
Set up an emergency savings fund
It’s not easy to rebuild your life once you’ve sustained a natural disaster. However, there are things you can do that will help minimise the rebuilding process; building an emergency savings fund is one of them. How much should you save? Well, at least enough for about two to three months of expenses.
Additional Reading: How to Put Together An Emergency Fund
Keep cash in hand
You can’t always expect ATMs to be functional when your town is flooding, so keep some cash in hand just in case you reach a safer area during the flood and need to buy stuff. Keep in mind that there’s a great chance that physical currency can get damaged, so carry a minimal yet sufficient amount with you.
Prioritise your assets
You’ll want to make sure your car is protected from the flood, right? If you know someone who lives in a neighbouring town which is not under threat of an impending flood, you might want to go park your car there in advance and manage with public transport for a few days. It’s always better to face a little inconvenience now than lose your car to a flood.
Additional Reading: The Ultimate Guide To Insurance Claims For Flood-Damaged Cars
Similarly, prioritise all your major assets, like your home and jewellery and ensure their safety from water or any damage. The rest you can always secure once you’re done handling the former.
Assure safety of pets
If you have a dog or cat at home, you might want to maintain emergency animal rescue numbers in hand so that you can get timely help for your four-legged friends. In catastrophes such as floods, situations can leave you fighting for your own life, and it would be quite hard for you to also ensure your pet’s well-being with all the chaos. Hence, planning early is always recommended.
Establish a point of contact
If you’re anticipating a natural disaster that may render you unreachable, speak to a loved one who lives in another state and ask him or her to update the rest of your family and friends about your situation. You can keep this one contact updated till you have some sort of connection. Nowadays, social media is also a great tool to spread mass messages quickly and easily. It’s good to post an update about your situation and inform your social network before you go out of coverage. Dropping your location may also help rescuers, should you get stuck in the coming days.
Keep emergency numbers on speed dial
You don’t want to lose time trying to find out emergency numbers when disaster strikes. Keep them handy so you can get timely help at the right time. Even a few minutes saved can saved a life!
Additional Reading: Floods in Kerala and Coorg – How You Can Help
The bottom line is, emergency situations are unavoidable; the best you can do is be best prepared for the worst. At the end of the day, nothing matters more than the safety of your loved ones and your important assets and documents.