By Richard Thompson

If you live in a part of the world prone to wildfires, floods, blizzards, tornadoes, or earthquakes, there are ways you can make sure you’re financially prepared for disaster, beyond insurance.

The Federal Emergency Management Association and the Red Cross advise that households gather important documents and contacts in a safe place, take photographs or record a video of the rooms in your home and any valuable belongings, and to have cash on hand, in case ATMs and electronic or online banking resources aren’t available, among other guidance.

Lisa Berdie, director of policy and research for the Financial Health Network, an organization that focuses on underserved consumers, refers to these steps as “preparedness,” but stresses the need for “investments in efforts to lessen the severity of climate impacts, reduce risks, and minimize financial harm.”

“Key here is recognizing that it is not just the headline-grabbing events, but smaller-scale events and chronic stressors (for example, heat) that have dramatic financial consequences for households,” Berdie said. “Some of the action steps that households can consider (there)... include weatherizing homes and addressing health hazards that are worsened by climate hazards, like mold and air quality.”

Here’s what you can do to be more financially prepared and organized in case of disaster:

First, compile and assess

According to FEMA, the first thing to do is compile important documents. These include: birth and marriage certificates, social security cards, military service records and your pet’s ID tags, microchip and vaccination records.

Other documents to have organized include: housing payments, utility bills, credit/debit card information, receipts from child support, checking, savings, and retirement account numbers, insurance policies, paystubs, tax statements, and wills, according to FEMA.

Medical information to have on hand includes: health insurance and pharmacy cards, records of immunizations and allergies, copies of prescriptions, and records of medical devices or equipment for disabilities.

Also make records of important contacts, such as:

1. Landlord or mortgage representatives

2. Doctors, dentists, or other health care providers

3. Insurance agents

4. Representatives in charge of military benefits and social and disability services

5. Assistive technology or medical equipment providers

6. Lawyers

7. Financial advisors

8. Banking institutions

9. Neighborhood, civic, and house of worship contacts

“Make sure you store important phone numbers somewhere besides just your cell phone,” FEMA advises.

Why is this information necessary?

When you apply for disaster assistance, you may need to show proof of ID or income. You may also need to re-establish financial accounts if checks are destroyed or if online access is down.

Other records can help you prove the identity of household members, maintain or re-establish contact with family and friends, maintain contact with employers, and apply for other forms of assistance.

How else can I organize my financial life to prepare for disaster?

If you don’t have an original version of a document listed above, contact the appropriate company or agency to request a copy. If you receive paper checks for any federal benefits, consider enrolling in automatic benefits, and if you receive paper checks from an employer, consider requesting direct deposit or prepaid debit cards.

FEMA also advises printing or downloading statements of any bills paid automatically, such as rent or mortgage payments, utilities, loan payments, and membership fees. Downloading banking and bill payment apps for your phone can also help you stay mobile in times of emergency.

Photographing or recording a video of the rooms in your home and any valuable belongings is also advisable as a form of record keeping.

Store cash along with important documents

FEMA and the Red Cross advise individuals to keep cash in the same safe location as one’s important documents to pay for emergency purchases in the event that ATMs aren’t functioning or banks are closed. The amount of cash should be based on the basic needs of your family, including gas, food, and medications.

Make sure your information is up-to-date

Review insurance policies and financial paperwork to be sure they’re accurate and current — that includes homeowners, auto, and renters insurance.

Store documents securely

Store paper and electronic copies of all files in safe locations. Consider keeping paper copies in a fireproof and waterproof box or safe, a bank safe deposit box, or with a trusted friend or relative.

If you’re already using a safe deposit box, check state laws to confirm who can and can’t access the safe if the owner dies or can’t access it themselves due to injury or illness, FEMA advises.

To store electronic copies of important documents, use a password-protected format on a flash or external hard drive, which you can also keep in the fireproof, waterproof box. Finally, update consistently

Revisit and update your documents regularly.

Updates are especially important when significant changes in your life occur, such as: when your insurance changes, when you move, open or close bank accounts, become married or divorced, when you have a child, when your child changes schools, during retirement planning, and if there’s a death in the household.

By April Lanux

Greg Schneider scans rows upon rows of liquid-filled glass jars containing coiled snake specimens, just a portion of the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology’s reptile and amphibian collection believed to be the largest held by any research institution in the U.S. thanks to a recent donation.

The museum this fall acquired tens of thousands of reptile and amphibian specimens from Oregon State University, many of which are snakes. The development places the university in a unique position, according to Schneider, the research museum collections manager for the museum’s division of reptiles and amphibians.

“I’m fairly confident we’ll have the largest snake collection in the world,” he said. The extensive new additions also will allow scientists to conduct new snake and amphibian research, perhaps looking at trait evolution in mothers and their offspring.

Numerous studies have been conducted in recent years about declining amphibian and reptile populations, Schneider said, noting they “are very good biological indicators of the health of the environment and ecosystems,” especially the amphibians.

“Amphibians, unlike people, breathe at least partly through their skin, which is constantly exposed to everything in their environment,” he said, adding that “the worldwide occurrences of amphibian declines and deformities could be an early warning that some of our ecosystems, even seemingly pristine ones, are seriously out of balance.”

Boxes containing water snakes, garter snakes, woodland salamanders, dusky salamanders and other species arrived last month. They were euthanized and ultimately placed in a solution that is 75% ethanol. The donations represent the lifetime work of two retired Oregon State professors, Lynne Houck and Stevan Arnold, who received a doctorate from Michigan in 1972.

Schneider has yet to complete the painstaking process of cataloging the new material, but estimates it contains around 30,000 snakes. He said that would give Michigan a total of between 65,000 to 70,000 of the slithering vertebrates, surpassing collections at the Smithsonian in Washington, the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the University of Kansas. Some of the specimens housed at the museum prior to the Oregon State donation predate the Civil War.

The “largest snake collection” title would be nice, but Schneider said the true promise of a big collection is new research opportunities.

“The more stuff you have and the more associated materials that you have, the more things you can do,” Schneider said.

The newly acquired Oregon State collection also includes about 30,000 associated frozen tissue samples. Along with advances in molecular genetics and more sophisticated DNA analyses, the samples will allow research that could result in a better understanding of inheritance, evolutionary relationships and “has huge applications in medicine,” said Hernán López-Fernández, an associate professor in Michigan’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

A number of the newly acquired jars contain both snakes and litters of their newborns, which Michigan professor Dan Rabosky said “is very, very rare for museum collections and is incredibly powerful for research, because it lets researchers ask questions about genetics that would otherwise not be possible.”

Despite the daunting task of organizing the new collection, Schneider said he and his colleagues have noticed renewed excitement in team members who staff the university’s 153,375-square-foot (14,249-square-meter) Research Museums Center, where the specimens are housed.

“Since these specimens arrived, people are very, very, very enthusiastic and supportive,” Schneider said. “And excited about the kinds of research that are going to be done with these collections.”