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.