Yesterday’s 4.4 temblor reminded us all that we live in an earthquake zone. And while a lot of us have emergency water and supplies on-hand, being prepared for a disaster means more than that – it means being financially ready.
Financially Ready?
In the event of a large earthquake or other natural disaster, you’ll need to have a plan to pay your bills, access your accounts, locate important documents, safeguard records and avoid problems with your credit when you’ll need it the most.
The Financial First Aid Kit
Here are a few tips for how you can start getting financially ready:
1. Identify your important documents and place them in a safe space: You can use the Safeguarding Your Valuables activity and Emergency Financial First Aid Kit to help get you started.
2. Download phone applications that can help during emergencies: Use the FEMA phone application to access to disaster preparedness, response and recovery resources including disaster assistance.
3. Enroll in Go Direct to minimize disruptions to receiving any federal benefits you may receive
4. Plan ahead of time to recover: Our partners at USDA have created great resources to help get you started including Recovery After Disaster: The Family Financial Toolkit and the Disaster Recovery Log.
Here in the Controller’s office, we’re making sure we’ve got our Financial First Aid Kit ready so that in the event of a disaster, the City will be able to meet its fiscal obligations.
Sincerely,
