Identity theft precautions during a disaster is a MUST! Hurricane’s like Irene, Katrina & Charlie, Tornadoes, Mudslides, Floods, Earthquakes, Wildfires and etc… can be very devastating to mankind, but they can impact your identity for the rest of your life. We usually have some form of these natural disasters each and every year, but most people don’t even think about how this one time event could possibly cause a lifetime of devastation.
It occurs each year, but hardly any thought goes in to protecting your identity before the aftermath. If a tornado or a hurricane hits your home, your bank, your mortgage company, a store where you just opened a credit account, city hall or even an elementary you went to a long time ago, your personal information could be blown in the winds for miles if not hundreds of miles away.
Whether you think that you have control over your identity from being stolen or not, you have no control. A major disaster could do to you and your family even if you are thousands of miles away.
Prepare for the Worst
Once you’ve put some thought into all the ways your information could be at risk, then it’s time to take action. Gather up all of your personal and financial information and store it in one place. Some of the documents you should collect include:
Driver’s Licenses
Birth Certificates
Marriage Certificates
Death Certificates
Adoption Paperwork
Social Security Cards and Statements
Insurance Paperwork (Home, Health, and Auto)
Lease/Mortgage Paperwork
Past Tax Returns
Bank and Credit Card Statements
Investment Paperwork
Utility Bills and etc…
Make sure that you get all of this paperwork together in one place. It’s best to store it in a waterproof bag, inside a fireproof safe if possible. Then, if you need to evacuate, grab it and you are on your way. Better yet, if you have everything in a portable fireproof safe, just take the entire thing.
This year the South and Midwest felt some of 
the hardest hit twisters or floods to record. As the wildfires in the Southwest this year ruined thousand of acres, we here in the Southeast are waiting for the hurricane season to hurry up and end on November 1st.
Pure disasters often leave an ENORMOUS path of destruction in their wake. Unfortunately, this opens up the opportunity for people with less morals to take advantage of something that could pour salt in to an already open wound. Whether you want to believe it or not, a lot of would be thieves/looters will break in to homes during this time of chaos not only grab your valuables, but also your personal documents to be sold on the black market. This being the case, these disasters not only force people to rebuild their homes and towns, but also their lives from scratch.
The loss of individual documents not only complicates relations with federal service providers, your banks and so many other entities, it creates undue stress at a time when you differently don’t need it.
Major or even minor events can wreak havoc with your identity. Believe it or not, you are not in control of what could happen in the future. It is bad enough to pick up the pieces and just get back to normal after one of these events, but make certain you don’t have to rebuild the identity as well.
