I was thinking of all of the people who lost all of their family photos and memorbilia.. I watched a doctor who had dug through rubble for over 3 hours and all he had to show was one picture of him and his oldest daughter.. he was crying.

Here is a project for all of us this weekend or this week. Don't procrasinate.

This weekend I have been uploading all of my pictures into Snapfish.com - a free photo server. It is simple to upload and organize, order prints and share albums. If we have a tornado, my negatives, picture albums, video tapes, computer are gone - the pics are still on a server and I can access them and order replacements.

I have lost many photos on my computer when my hard drive crashed but I always can get to the ones on Snapfish (or any photo hosting site).

Here are some tips that will save you much heartache if something should happen - fire or tornado, even a flood.

Take an hour to upload your photos.

Take an hour to videotape all of your belongings and then give copies of that tape to a relative with copies of your insurance policy. This will save so much time and allow you to get replacement of your possessions if something should happen.

Get a fireproof safe and put your important papers, photo negatives, life insurance policies etc.

Check with your insurance company to make sure you have enough coverage. Renter's insurance is not expensive.

Program your cell phone to add ICE (in case of emergency) and put your spouse, nearest relative's phone number under that name in your contact list. Emergency personnel can go straight to that number and call a relative, even in an auto accident.

Give family members an out of state number to carry with them in case of emergency - when local numbers are down and lines are jammed, this relative or friend can be your only contact when you are separated from your family.

Make sure your tornado shelter is registered and supplied with bottles of water and canned foods.

Make sure your smoke detectors are working and if you have a second story, get a ladder. Practice a fire drill with your kids.


I hope we can all take a few minutes to do some of these suggestions, it would make such a difference in times of disaster. You won't regret it.

__________________
" You've Been Thunder Struck ! "

A better idea is to place everything important in a safe deposit box. Yes. Backup pictures and take the videos, however, put all the originals in a safe deposit box.

What if that relative is not reliable or themselves suffers a major loss? Then what. You are still cooked.

The odds of your documents being destroyed in a safe deposit box are extreemly low.

I thought I would bump this up .... I took my own advice and videotaped everything and put it into my fireproof safe that is portable. I hope I never have use for it.

Yesterday, I was at Lake Arcadia and the sky starting turning a really gruesome orange hazy soup looking mess.... we started driving home and turned on the radio - much to our surprise, there were two fires on Penn and Memorial and Kelly and 33rd - both near our home addition! Yikes.. I called my neighbors and they were all turning on the sprinklers and hoping that the creek behind our homes - filled with dry trees didn't catch a flying ember... Smoke was everywhere and it was hard to breathe. So far so good but that was pretty scary!

So, we will staying close to home the next fews days and ordering Chinese take out instead of BBQ! Take a minute to gather your important papers - SS cards, marriage/birth certificates, photos, video tapes proving your possessions - make sure your pets are safe - just have a back up plan in case the worst happens... many people die because they don't think or plan for these things.. and they are trying to run back into the house for things or pets or whatever.. and they get hurt.

Good luck everyone, I hope you are all safe the next few high fire danger days.

__________________
" You've Been Thunder Struck ! "

After I posted above, I read this in the Oklahoman....

"Earlier in the day — the first time the firefighter knocked on her door — Young was told there was probably nothing to worry about.

Five minutes later, though, she answered a pounding at her door.

“The firefighter came back by and just told us to get out,” Young said. “I was definitely a little freaked out.”

Young, who lives in a subdivision on NE 56 near Sooner Road in Oklahoma City, quickly gathered some belongings.
“I don’t even know what I grabbed,” said Young, whose home apparently was spared. “I just wasn’t thinking — I just ran around and grabbed stuff.”


*(I thought I would add to have easily accessible - photo negatives, checkbooks, credit cards, bill statements, deeds, titles etc and the backup files for the computer ( though I would cart this baby out!) ) It would make it much easier to get back on your feet if you had some of this rather than trying to track down all of your account numbers etc.

__________________
" You've Been Thunder Struck ! "

Good luck, Karried,

I've been watching tv reports & it seems like the fire (momorial & penn) is contained, for now. I pray that your home in Edmond is ok. Hang in there!!

whew! Thanks for the kind thoughts, it looks like things are calming down..that fire is completely out.. I drove by the one on Kelly and Lincoln - charred and black - it came withing feet of the gas station on Kelly and 33rd! Today is much better - knock on wood! Clear skies and not as windy - this time yesterday, the sky was so strange - red-orange murky - much different today.

(btw, Newpoint, I picked up a copy of Apartment Finder and you can go online at www.apartmentfinder.com to look for a temporary place to stay..I'm still checking into some apts in the area)

__________________
" You've Been Thunder Struck ! "

Stay tuned tomorrow, Karrie. They say that the south wind will be 25-35 MPH, with higher gusts, making it a "critical" high fire danger day. I'm afraid the firefighters will be awfully busy tomorrow fighting more grass fires.