Here at Fractured Atlas we had a little building issue Thursday night: a small, dramatic flood which drenched the desks, computers, and personal effects of our Deputy Director, Director of Development, Marketing and Development Specialist, Director of Membership, and myself. Luckily we got back online fairly quickly, but not everyone suffering from such a situation is as lucky.

Our workplace drama made me think of a home-related near-disaster from a few weeks ago. I was standing outside of my apartment watching some ominous clouds roll in over Queens.  I’ve lived in New York for nearly ten years, but lessons learned growing up in tornado country stick with you much longer than that, and so the first thought I had as I watched the greenish, low-hanging, roiling clouds racing in across Manhattan was “I live on the third floor.  Who do I know that has a basement?  And would a subway station be safe? Where am I going to go?”

I’m happy to report that 1) Fractured Atlas operations are more or less back to normal and 2) no tornado resulted from that storm in September. However, both experiences got me thinking (again) about a very important question: why does it nearly always take a frightening experience or a small emergency to make us think about being prepared?  Because let me tell you, the day after that tornado scare I was over at my friend’s basement apartment two blocks away with a bottle of wine and a request for access to emergency shelter.

Here at Fractured Atlas, we think of a “disaster” as anything from a hurricane to a power outage in the office. It’s anything that will stop us from being able to do our work or live our lives. All of it can be prepared for with a minimum of effort, and it can happen to anyone, as we found out on Thursday night. Let me tell you, the miniscule effort required to be prepared is more than worth the payoff in peace of mind.

So what’s to be done? Feel a little overwhelmed by all of the advice out there? Feel like there’s no way that you could possibly take the time to be prepared? Fear no more.

Welcome to my quick-and-dirty guide to disaster planning. If you have two hours you can get it all done and be able to smugly lord your wicked preparedness level over your friends. It’s surprisingly effective at convincing other people to follow your lead.

Here we go!

1. Get insurance. Approximate time to completion: 15 minutes (active time. Waiting for the quote/policy will take some additional time.) You want a homeowner’s/renter’s insurance policy to cover your personal items. You also want to look into insurance for your various arts-related activities (link to FA programs), including coverage for your artwork, materials, and equipment if that is relevant to your work. This may be the simplest part of your preparedness plan as we’ve made it as painless as possible. If you want to know more about the various types of insurance to consider, spend some time with our Pocket Guides to Insurance for the Arts.

2. Order a first aid/disaster kit from the American Red Cross. Approximate time to completion: 6 minutes (15 if you have a hard time making up your mind). These guys have been doing this for decades: take advantage of their experience! They have a new, kicky, “vintage” kit here or the more traditional (and somewhat better stocked) “Deluxe emergency preparedness kit” here. When it arrives, throw it in the back of the closet along with item #3 and you’re one step closer than most people to being disaster-ready.

3. Order or purchase locally a couple of cases of non-perishable food and one case of 24 bottles of water. Approximate time to completion: 10 minutes (longer if you can’t remember what types of food you like). Think things that you won’t have to cook (since you won’t necessarily have access to power for the microwave or gas for your stove) or add water to (since the water may not be potable after a disaster), like non-condensed canned soup, canned vegetables, Spaghetti-O’s, and honey roasted peanuts. Throw a couple of chocolate bars or other sweet goodness in for fun.

4. Complete the Emergency Financial First Aid Kit courtesy of Operation Hope. Approximate time to completion: 30 minutes. I LOVE this document (really). Save a copy safely on your computer; keep a hard copy (sealed and in a secure location), including the associated copies of personal documents, at home or at work, or both. Send one packet to a family member who you trust who lives at least 50 miles away.

5. Put together a disaster plan.  Approximate time to completion: 20 minutes. This can be as basic as determining a meeting location in the event of an evacuation and putting together everyone’s contact information. Here at the office, we have an epic document detailing what to do in the case of almost any disaster; while we didn’t have one specifically for “roof caves in from water pooling above”, there is a plan in place that governs most of our daily work decisions.  For example, nothing physical at our offices is unique and irreplaceable: my copies of our insurance policies live as PDFs on our file server (which is backed up at an offsite location) as well as in hard copy at my desk and at our broker’s office in Baltimore. So flood what may, beyond my wedding photos on my desk not much is precious.

Total time required: 1 hour, 31 minutes. Total monetary investment: approx. $100. Doesn’t that sound worth it?

Still have some time/energy?  I have some extra credit projects for you:

1. Get a fireproof box for your home. Store things like originals of marriage and birth certificates and insurance policies in it. Luckily, this can go in the back of the closet as well.

2. Get trained in CPR/emergency first aid. Back to the Red Cross! Your local chapter should have classes regularly; they usually cost around $80. If you sign up to volunteer for them you may even be able to get the training for free, and they’ll throw in a CPR keychain to boot.

3. Read the Zombie Survival Guide. You know what? It has some pretty great advice in there, even if you’re not running from the undead.

4. Purchase an extra emergency radio. I found one which is so amazingly cool that everyone important to me is getting one as a holiday gift this year. It’s solar powered or hand-cranked, receives AM/FM/NOAA, has a USB cell phone charger port, and a built-in LED flashlight. And it’s adorable!

5. Check out the multitude of amazing resources that are out there: the American Red Cross, ready.gov, CERF+, and ArtsReady, a project of SouthArts, are just a few. And the last two are dear friends of Fractured Atlas in addition to being outstanding organizations.