No matter where you live in the country there are natural disasters that we all need to make preparations for. From wildfires and earthquakes in California to hurricanes and flooding in the southeast – there are potential perils.  Additionally, a disaster could be very local and personal in nature – a flood or fire in your own home.

Depending on where you live and what calamity is most likely to affect you – you’ll want to take the necessary steps to protect and prepare yourself.  This month states such as California, Arizona, and Nevada participated in their annual “shake out” where emergency response services are practiced in the case of a major earthquake.

The Department of Homeland Security offers some good advice and planning tools to help you prepare your family for a disaster event.

That said, one way to add some further protection is to add a little redundancy to your plan.  That’s where your storage unit can come in handy.  Consider storing an emergency travel bag in your unit with a few days’ worth of clothes for you and your family.  Make copies of important documents and keep them in a box in that’s accessible.  Also, consider making a backup of your computer files onto a portable hard drive and keeping it in your unit (don’t forget to update/rotate drives). These are all things that can help you in the event that your home is inaccessible for a short time or if extensive damage has occurred making some vital objects unrecoverable.

Dollar Self Storage has storage locations in Southern California, Arizona, and Nevada including newly opened locations in North Las Vegas and Chandler, Arizona.