Editor's note: Preparing for emergencies, from natural disasters to a house fire, shouldn’t have to be a stressful or expensive. Here is one of three recently reviewed books that have suggestions on different aspects of emergency preparedness.
"GRAB 'N GO ESSENTIAL DOCUMENT ORGANIZER," by Mary Rowbury, Hobble Creek Press, $12.99, 117 pages (nf)
Having experienced two fires that moved quickly through her community in Herriman, Mary Rowbury knows how vital being prepared to quickly leave your home can be in an emergency. She adds nearly 25 years’ experience of dealing in insurance to a resource book she has written titled “Grab 'n Go Essential Document Organizer.”
As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Rowbury has served as the emergency preparedness coordinator. Her organizer is a detailed, step-by-step guide to gathering basic family information, including medical histories, a list of emergency contacts, insurance, wills, tax and other financial records.
Rowbury describes how to create a photographic inventory of your home on a CD to keep with your emergency binder. Once the pages have been filled in and her suggestions followed, families can have greater peace of mind if they ever need to leave their home in a hurry.
"Grab 'n Go" serves as a workbook; a gathering place for all of a family's essential documents and information.
The benefits of having all of this documentation together in a binder go beyond being prepared for a disaster. Having a central place for important family records can come in handy on many occasions. Rowbury’s document organizer can be valuable to every household who uses it.
Stephanie Abney, eternal optimist, retired school teacher and freelance writer, lives in Mesa, Ariz., with her husband, Jim. They have five children and 18 grandchildren. Email is sabneyfeedback@cox.net and she blogs at stephaniesaysso.blogspot.com.