11 Essential Things You Must Have in Your Emergency Kit

11. Important documents

This is extremely important not just during a natural disaster, but for managing to rebuild your life after it. Having your personal documents placed in a waterproof container can go a long way towards reducing stress levels once the immediate damage has passed, says Hart.

Iowa Legal Aid recommends keeping these papers all together so you can grab them while you’re in a hurry:

• Identification, no matter if it’s a driver’s license, passport, or another photo ID.
• Insurance documents like life insurance, flood and fire insurance as well as homeowners or rental insurance.
• Legal documents, such as birth certificates, any child custody or adoption paper, wills, powers of attorney, and the like.

You can simply scan your important documents or take pictures with your smart phone or make photocopies and store those in your evacuation preparedness kit, says Tornetta.

“Have an extra copy of your driver’s license and social security card. If you have to flee in a hurry, you may forget your ID or your wallet if they’re stored in a separate place,” he adds. You can also store these documents online, notes Schlegelmilch.