Home / The guide / Blackout continuity

Protect documents and records

When offices and online accounts are unreachable, paper and offline copies prove who you are, what you own and what medical care you need.

How

1. Data and document backup lives in one place: secure-18. Follow it for copies, drive encryption and where the passphrase is kept. This step adds the estate's own records.
2. Gather household ID, financial and legal papers, medical information and contacts, the four groups in FEMA's Emergency Financial First Aid Kit.
3. Keep paper copies in a fireproof and waterproof box or safe at home, and a second set with a trusted person or off site (FEMA EFFAK).
4. Store encrypted digital copies on a flash drive kept in that box (FEMA EFFAK).
5. Photograph rooms, valuables and documents (FEMA EFFAK).
6. Write important phone numbers, medicines and radio frequencies on paper, as the UK Prepare guidance advises.
7. Keep the estate's house file (legal-22), system manuals, wiring diagrams and spares register in the same offline set.
8. Review at least once a year and after big life changes (FEMA EFFAK).

Do these first

• legal-22
• secure-18

Sources

1. Emergency Financial First Aid Kit (large print toolkit). FEMA, accessed 2026-11
2. Financial preparedness. Ready.gov (FEMA), accessed 2026-11
3. Get prepared for emergencies. UK Government Prepare / Be Ready campaign, accessed 2026-11

Open in the interactive guide