As victims of Hurricane Katrina and other recent disasters have found, when you have to function after a major disaster, not having your emergency contact or medical information with you and accessible can have disastrous results.

Step one is to fill out an emergency contact form for every member of your family. Be sure to include any relatives who are dependent upon you for their safety -- parents, grandparents or those who are physically or mentally challenged. Even if you have a family member under care in a nursing home or a child away at school, this doesn't mean their emergency information will be readily available.

If you don't have one, an adult and children's version can be downloaded free from our web site. Once you fill out an emergency contact form for each member of your immediate family, the next question is where to put it.

Make a few copies of each form and place a set in a few easy to reach places. First, place one set in a plastic zipper bag, to keep them dry and dust free and put it in a location near your home phone, either in a drawer under the phone, in a kitchen drawer, or a writing desk in the vicinity. Another idea is to put the information into a water tight container, like a plastic bottle and put it in your freezer. Even after the force of Hurricane Katrina, many times the only thing still in tact in a badly damaged home, is the refrigerator!

If the contact information is not easy to find, put a note where ever your emergency numbers are located (by the phone or on the refrigerator) where the information can be located.

Place a copy of your children's form in their school record, day care record or with your child's caregiver.

The tiny emergency forms sent out to parent's at the beginning of the school year are rarely returned and even if they are, have so little information on them, they can be useless. Make sure the information you want the school to have is at their fingertips.

Place a set with your main emergency contact