{"id":11153,"date":"2016-01-31T19:50:05","date_gmt":"2016-02-01T00:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=11153"},"modified":"2016-01-31T19:53:57","modified_gmt":"2016-02-01T00:53:57","slug":"how-to-prepare-your-home-for-a-natural-disaster-by-jasmine-dyoco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=11153","title":{"rendered":"How to Prepare Your Home for a Natural Disaster &#8211; By Jasmine Dyoco"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><em>Image from Flickr by <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/gsfc\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>NASA Goddard Space Flight Center<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>How to Prepare Your Home for a Natural Disaster<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Californians have wildfires, Midwesterners have tornadoes, and those living on the East Coast deal with hurricanes. When it comes to all the different types of natural disasters, the list goes on and on: flooding, earthquakes, tsunamis, heatwaves, droughts, and more.<\/p>\n<p>While we can\u2019t control everything Mother Nature throws our way, we can control how we prepare. Preparing yourself, your home, and your family for a natural disaster could mean the difference between financial security or financial crisis once the storm settles.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Educate Yourself on Your Area and Natural Disasters<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Knowledge is the best tool to have in your natural disaster emergency kit, so make sure you do some research on:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>what type of natural disasters <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flash.org\/perils.php\" target=\"_blank\">your area<\/a> is prone to<\/li>\n<li>your location\u2019s extreme weather history<\/li>\n<li>the materials your house was built with and how strong they are<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You\u2019ll also want to be very familiar with exactly what your home insurance covers. There should be no confusion when it comes to your home\u2019s protection and what will be covered, so call your insurance company with any questions. Consider upgrading your insurance plan if you think your area is especially threatened by natural disaster.<\/p>\n<p>Keep an eye on breaking <a href=\"http:\/\/www.accuweather.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">weather news<\/a> for your area and go with your gut. Make your <em>own<\/em> call when it comes to decisions about safety and evacuation\u2013don\u2019t wait for weather alerts to put your plans into action. If you feel unsafe, it\u2019s time to prepare yourself and your home.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Know What You Own<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Even the best insurance coverage in the world can\u2019t save you if you can\u2019t prove the value of your possessions lost in a natural disaster. Collect serial numbers for gadgets, details on all your home\u2019s furnishings, and any receipts for upgrades you\u2019ve made to your home.<\/p>\n<p>Take pictures of your home and possessions both before and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.redfin.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/the-ultimate-socal-disaster-safety-guide.html\" target=\"_blank\">after the disaster<\/a> so you\u2019ll have no problem taking advantage of your insurance claims. You might even qualify for federal aid or charity after a disaster, but it all starts with keeping a detailed inventory of what you own.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Create a Family Plan<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Make an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.redcross.org\/prepare\/location\/home-family\/plan\" target=\"_blank\">emergency plan<\/a>\u00a0for your home and family so everyone will know what to do if disaster strikes. Keep an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ready.gov\/kit\" target=\"_blank\">emergency supply kit<\/a> in your home so you can leave in a moment\u2019s notice if you have to.<\/p>\n<p>Many people don\u2019t realize that making a natural disaster emergency plan is just another part of responsible home ownership, and unfortunately many people don\u2019t think about it at all. But taking just these few extra steps could mean saving your home and possessions from a natural disaster, and it could even mean preserving the safety of your family. Make a plan now so that even if disaster strikes, you\u2019ll be ready to protect your family and their financial security.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jasmine Dyoco<\/strong> is a fan of crossword puzzles, gardening, books on tape, learning (anything!) and fencing. She truly enjoys the work she does with <a href=\"http:\/\/educatorlabs.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Educator Labs<\/a> and hopes you\u2019ll stop by the site to learn more!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image from Flickr by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center \u00a0 How to Prepare Your Home for a Natural Disaster &nbsp; Californians have wildfires, Midwesterners have tornadoes, and those living on &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=11153\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">How to Prepare Your Home for a Natural Disaster &#8211; By Jasmine Dyoco<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11154,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482,1945],"tags":[2056,2064,2061,2058,2066,2060,2063,2065,2059,2062,2057],"class_list":["post-11153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2","category-psa","tag-disasters","tag-droughts","tag-earthquakes","tag-emergency-plan","tag-emergency-supply-kit","tag-flooding","tag-heatwaves","tag-natural-disasters","tag-security","tag-tsunamis","tag-weather-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Be-Prepared.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11153"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}