Making the Most of 30 Minutes: A Challenge Inspired by the Japanese Earthquake

Reports from Japan indicate that the residents of northeastern Japan had no significant warning in advance of the major earthquake that struck their communities on Friday, March 11 and about 30 minutes to prepare for a tsunami that followed. Further away from the epicenter of the earthquake, people had between 60 and 90 seconds to prepare for it, just enough time to turn off natural gas and find a place to hide and survive.

Whether it is seconds before one disaster or minutes between two, figuring out how to survive becomes almost instinctive, putting to good use the planning and training that you practiced. With so little time, there is no time for anything else.

Our Heritage Vault is an advocate for planning and preserving family photographs and important documents. It takes time to do a good job of selecting old photographs, digitally scanning them, creating electronic files of your favorites, and saving those files on the Internet. It is also important to create electronic files of documents ranging from your estate planning to insurance policies to deeds and titles, and much, much more.

Here’s the challenge. Take 30 minutes to identify the things that you would miss if you were among those who lost so much in northeastern Japan. Need help? Visit our website and look at the Important Things Index, a comprehensive list of things that we care about. If you live in an area prone to hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and flooding rivers and streams or if you are otherwise susceptible fires, floods from broken pipes, and careless neighbors, take the challenge. 

Find out what you will miss and think about how you can prevent loss. Let us know if we can help or leave a comment about the things you'll miss. 

        

Sun Rays Can Damage Old Photos Just as Much as Hurricanes and Floods.

Although the start of 2011 hurricane season is still a few months away,  it may not be a hurricane or flood that sweep away the photos that trigger your favorite memories but something far less dramatic than fury of a tempestuous storm. There may be little things that can adversely affect your collection of old and vintage photographs with the same catastrophic effect as a major flood.

A color snapshot from 1967

One of those things is sunlight. Did you know that the sun's rays will cause more deterioration to photographs than storm clouds? Older color photographs are especially susceptible to the sun’s rays. Fluorescent lighting is also a problem and as more people use of energy efficient compact fluorescent lamps (CFL), photographic images that are on display may deteriorate more rapidly.

  

There are companies that can restore, or attempt to restore, images to their original look but it’s very expensive. Capturing a digital scan of an image before significant deterioration or damage makes a lot of sense. The size of the scan and the equivalent dpi (dots per square inch) will enable you to create a print of an image that is compatible with the original. Waiting until after there are faded colors make it much more expensive to achieve comparable results. Water damage and scratch removal will also add to the cost of restoration too.

Consider creating digital scans of your favorite 25 photographs at 600 dpi. If something happens, you can create print replications that will preserve your memories and you'll have the capacity, if you desire, to enlarge the original to a new image.

For more ideas about what you may want accessible in electronic file form, visit Our Heritage Vault. Our Do-It-Yourself (DIY) package, the EvacuPacket provides guidance, templates, and an emergency organizer for your favorite photos and important documents. Save $10 off the retail price of an EvacuPacket by using the code TB2HEG at the checkout counter. 

Don't Wait: Another Hurricane Season Starts in Just 3 Months

Even if not submerged, wet conditions
 and oxygen will stimulate mold growth
on any organic material.

Yes, there are lots of ways to spend time rather than digitally scanning and creating electronic files of your favorite photographs. But how long can you tempt fate? How many years have passed since the last major flood or storm struck your neighborhood? Protecting your photo albums and pictures from a rainy day is a smart thing to do. You ensure that the memories those photos evoke can be passed on as “show and tell stories” from you to future generations.

To start, consider creating digital scans of your favorite 25 photographs. Generally, people scan their photos at 300 dpi (dots per square inch) from which they can create printed images. We recommend 600 dpi. It takes a little longer to complete the scan and there is little difference when printing the same size image as the original. The difference appears if you want to print a larger image or to take a detail from a photograph, for example, print a photo image of Grandpa’s head and shoulders from a photo with his siblings. New scanning software provides greater contrast, especially for color-on-color, three-dimensional objects. Old vacation photographs with the family auto in the background would benefit from this new technology.

There will never be a better time to start preserving your favorite photographs. The first step is to select your favorite 25 photographs. We developed a Do-It-Yourself package of information, the EvacuPacket. It provides guidance, templates, and an emergency organizer for keeping favorite photos and important documents with you. Save $10 off the retail price of an EvacuPacket by using the code TB2HEG at the checkout counter. 

If you don’t have the equipment or the patience, we may be able to help. Visit our website Our Heritage Vault or call us at (877) 512-4849. For more ideas about what you may want accessible in electronic file form, visit Our Heritage Vault.