Seeing the devastation taking place in Houston, TX and the surrounding area, it makes everyone realize the how quickly our lives can be turned upside down. When I think about the massive flooding and the potential for even greater disaster if the rains persist, I can’t help but think how terrifying it must be for those inhabitants that are stuck in the midst of the chaos and even those fortunate enough to have escaped, but realizing their lives will forever be altered. In these times of upheaval and peril the first instinct is survival. But then once the danger subsides and the waters recede, the next thought is how you put your life back together. That’s when you assess what you have and what you lost and hopefully it’s only possessions, because those can be replaced.

However, there are items that if lost can often never be replaced and typically those are the photographs, videos, and mementos that represent a person’s life and the lives of those they care about. If those items are merely kept as standard pictures, film, or even stored on a hard drive, natural elements like water and mud can completely destroy them. However, optical discs are more durable and can withstand being submerged in water or covered in mud. So if you are able to convert those previous images and content onto optical discs, there’s a greater chance they will still endure the disaster and you can retain those treasures that would have been irreplaceable otherwise. Just like you shouldn’t keep all your eggs in one basket, it’s always wise to keep the most important content on multiple sources, possibly in the cloud and on 1 or more hard drives, but I would strongly suggest that at least one of your safety nets remain optical discs.

Most of us may never experience anything like the destruction that’s taking place now in Houston or has happened in many other locations around the world, but there are still small isolated incidents like a house fire, burglary, computer virus, or any number of incidents that could cause you to lose mementos and content that you could never replace unless you have adequate back-ups. So take the time to safeguard your treasures and back them up on optical discs.

For those of you that feel the heartache and want to help those afflicted and displaced by the flooding in Texas, here’s a link to the Red Cross relief effort for the residents of Houston.(make the words red cross the hyper link to this website: https://www.redcross.org/)