ID Theft after a natural disaster is a shock that few people can accept with all the other devastation that has occurred in their lives at the time.

News coverage will tell you that natural disasters can happen anywhere. Hurricanes in the south. Tornadoes in the Mid-West. Flooding in the East and earthquakes and wild fires taking out the West. No part of the U.S. or anywhere in the world is guaranteed from natural disaster.

Dreadful devastation accompanies a natural disaster and is usually quite widespread. Hurricane Katrina was responsible for wiping out entire coastal communities in Louisiana and Mississippi causing billions of dollars of damage to as far as the borders of Alabama and Florida.

The things you can do, like making an already devastating situation worse, are difficult for decent people to understand. It might be possible to comprehend a survival instinct as the motivation for looting but to seize the opportunity during something as catastrophic as Hurricane Katrina as cover for personal crimes like Identity theft is heinous. Any upheaval like a natural disaster is a criminal scumbags dream.

Let’s face it with a realistic outlook; there could be more to worry you than the immediate effects or even the aftermath of a disaster you might face in the future. Security measures, especially protecting your identity, need to be addressed well in advance to prevent id theft. You’ll have had enough to deal with at the time without identity theft becoming an issue as well.

Protect Your Identity Before Disaster Strikes…

Prevention is, as they say, is better than a cure. Do something pro-active now rather than reactive by creating a plan for protecting your identity as part of a disaster preparedness plan, as opposed to a crisis management situation or damage limitation scenario later.

Doing a personal risk assessment should be a major part of any identity protection plan; listing what paperwork or documents you will need, and defining who heads the security of that information in the event of evacuation or loss due to a natural catastrophe.

Assessing Your Risk for Identity Theft…

Earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, or other disasters, can scatter home and office contents out and wide and spread for miles in the open. After Hurricane Katrina, Sea World’s sign was discovered in Hattiesburg, MS, 70 miles away from the aquarium’s home in Gulfport, Mississipi! Most coastal residents never recovered aany of their belongings that were washed or blown away during the storm.

Should your home be destroyed during such a disaster, your personal information can turn up just about anywhere, like the aquarium’s Sea World sign. Essential documents such as birth certificates or bills and other pieces of paperwork containing personal information may put your identity at risk. Just as risky, of course, is information that courthouses, doctors’ and banks’ offices keep about you; they are no more protected from a disaster than you are.

Go To ID Theft and Natural Disasters – Part 2  >>