New service helps Gulf Coast residents better prepare for Gustav
On the brink of yet another hurricane threatening to make landfall on the Gulf Coast, residents are taking steps to better prepare themselves. A new website has recently launched as a new resource to help people organize important information, digitize documents, and a variety of other helpful services to aid in getting one’s life back together if such an event were to happen again.
With tropical storm Gustav approaching the once devastated Gulf Coast and gaining intensity, residents need all the help they can get. MyDisasterPlan.com is a secure web-based environment that acts as an central online organizational tool, according to a company press release. By giving people a user-friendly way to securely store electronic copies of driver’s licenses, birth certificates, credit card and banking data, emergency contacts, and inventories of valuable possessions, the service alleviates much of the stress of disaster recovery and can significantly shorten the time it takes to pull one’s life back together.
MyDisasterPlan.com was the creation of Patrick Krupka, who put his years working as a firefighter, paramedic and rescue specialist together with best practices from FEMA and the American Red Cross to make it easier for victims to pick up the pieces after a horrible event such as Katrina. MyDisasterPlan.com employs an easy-to-follow guided process for collecting and entering data and using it to build a customized family disaster plan, printable reports, and wallet cards for each family member with emergency personal information on the front and family disaster plan on the back. Storage on a secure remote server enables access to data and reports after a disaster from any Internet connection. Password protected versions of people’s information can be stored on a flash drive to be kept in a family’s disaster kit as well.
Having a family disaster plan that codifies where important items are, where family members should meet or who they should call if separated, and includes key identification and financial information can reduce fear and stress leading up to and immediately following a disaster. Having details about valuable possessions facilitates the process of filing insurance claims and helps people work with their insurance agents to ensure they have appropriate coverage for their assets. MyDisasterPlan.com also offers tip sheets with steps that people can take now to help ready their homes and families for disaster.
I’m sure, in some regards, that people living in hurricane-cautious areas would have already taken some of the steps MyDisasterPlan.com provides, but I think having a service that does the hard work for you will jump-start this kind of preparedness much faster.
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September 10th, 2008
I actually found that they have a cool associated blog too. http://www.mydisasterblog.blogspot.com good information about disaster planning and preparation, and with Ike approaching…I’ll take all the help I can get!