We are in month four of KLCC’s Oregon Ready: taking one month at a time toward being two weeks ready for disasters.
In my own personal quest to become better prepared, I’m following the Eugene Water & Electric Board’s “Pledge to Prepare” program which maps to Oregon’s “Be 2 Weeks Ready” initiative – and I’ve invited you all to join me.
When we talk about disaster preparedness, we often think about food, water, and evacuation routes. But disasters also come with paperwork- and financial stress-at the worst possible moment.
This month, we’re focusing on financial first aid: what you can do now to make recovery easier later.
Charlie Wente is a consumer liaison with Oregon’s Division of Financial Regulation. He said being financially ahead of natural disasters is “an important part of being ready to go.” He added that “taking simple steps can save you a lot of money, time, and stress.”
Wente said financial first aid boils down to three things: “build a home inventory, make copies of financial documents, and review your insurance coverage.”
Let’s start with the home inventory. It sounds tedious—but both regulators and insurers say it’s one of the most powerful tools you can have after a disaster.
Kenton Brine is president of the Northwest Insurance Council, which represents property and casualty insurers in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.
“There are three simple words: proof of loss,” said Brine. “The more information you have about your loss, the faster your claim is handled and the more smoothly that process will go.”
Brine notes that proof of loss starts before anything goes wrong.
“Generally when we're talking about a large-scale loss–like your home burns down in a wildfire or there's severe damage due to flooding or earthquake–a home inventory is where that begins,” said Brine. “So, you know what you had before the loss and you know what happened to it during the loss and what needs to be replaced after the loss.”
To build a home inventory, the least complex thing you can do is walk through your home with your smartphone and record what’s in every room.
That means what’s in closets, storage spaces, the stuff on your walls. And if you can, narrate what you’re recording: when you bought something, what it cost, where it came from.
I gave this a shot in my own home, narrating as I began with my living room. “We have this wooden coat rack from the early 20th century that we bought at an antique mall in 2013- we paid $150 for that. This framed print of the McKenzie River was purchased from the artist at a Saturday Market in 2023, we probably paid around $40. There's a wooden plant stand with a ceramic pot and a mature jade plant...”
After you’ve gone room by room, you can save the video to a cloud service, or even email it to yourself. There are also a variety of apps for your smartphone that can help you create a digital inventory of everything in your home. If you’re one who’d rather write things down, you can find a variety of printable home inventory worksheets online.
Another reason an inventory is crucial is because after a disaster, memory is not reliable.
“If you think about your state of mind after a disaster, it's really hard to imagine how you're going to respond personally, but a lot of people are just in a state of shock,” said Brine. “They've lost everything or a significant portion of everything. If it's a fire and their home has been reduced to ash on the ground, they're literally sorting through ashes. It's going to be very hard to remember the things that were in every room of that house, so that you can get a fair settlement and get those things replaced as best you can.”
Insurance coverage itself is another place people often get caught off guard, especially around floods, earthquakes, and landslides.
“Flood is not part of your homeowner's insurance policy, unless the water damage is from inside the house,” noted Brine. “If the creek rises and comes into your house from outside, that is not covered, and you have to get a flood insurance policy either from your own insurer, or through your own insurer, or through the National Flood Insurance Program.”
Brine also says many homeowners are underinsured—covered for what they paid for their house, not what it would cost to rebuild today. All of which makes reviewing your policy part of disaster prep. That’s why he said it’s critical to understand what’s in your policy—what’s covered, what’s not.
Back at the Oregon Division of Financial Regulation, Charlie Wente says financial first aid also includes safeguarding the documents you’ll need to prove who you are.
Wente said that includes passports, Social Security cards, birth certificates, bank and loan documents, insurance policies, titles, tax returns, will and power of attorney.
Just like the home inventory, Wente recommends storing copies digitally.
“You can store them on a flash drive or in the cloud or in a folder, or you can store them off site.” Wente said if you use a flash drive, put it with your to go bag so it’s ready to go out the door with you if you need to leave your home in a hurry.
So, this month, as I check off another piece of the Oregon Ready list, I’m expanding what preparedness means to me. It’s not just supplies and evacuation routes- it’s records, protection, and peace of mind. Financial first aid won’t stop a disaster, but it can help steady you after one.
And as always, I’m taking this step alongside you— one manageable task at a time, toward being two weeks ready.
If you have questions about disaster preparedness, email questions@klcc.org.
