Is a tornado the scariest and most harmful disaster?

Probably the disaster that strikes the most fear in families is the tornado - very little advance notice, highly destructive and frightfully dangerous to human life. According to AccuWeather, the average number of tornadoes in the United States is 1287 tornadoes every year. That's a big number!

Preparing for a tornado is a simple process. You find a safe area to hide, you have tools to tell you when you should come out of hiding and you have the resources in place to deal with the aftermath of the tornado if you or your neighbors have been impacted. That may sound simple, but its still a scary situation so being prepared in advance is well worth the effort to minimize the danger and to improve the safety of your family.

The solution to preparing for a tornado includes a shelter in place plan. This plan involves having a number of resources including a shelter in place bag or kit, a 'personal binder' that includes critical family financial and electronic information (as well as critical documents that you may need after the tornado does its thing), and also plans that include multiple optional safety places where family members can hide and be safe (in case they are not at home when the tornado approaches).

Having these resources (shelter in place kit and alternate access to critical family documents) prepared in advance can be the difference between survival and loss of everything you own. If the worst does happen, your properly prepared kit and backup asset information could have a huge impact on your family's ability to recover from one of the most dangerous disasters on Earth!