Hurricane Season is Here. Is your Genealogy Data Protected?

What does June 1st mean to you? To me it signifies the beginning of hurricane season. And this year is predicted to be a doozy.

I've lived through nine hurricanes in the last few years, so I know the drill. We are warned to have bottled water, food that doesn't need refrigeration, a battery-powered radio and extra batteries.

But what I really have been thinking about recently is all my irreplaceable genealogy data - my genealogy files and all my scanned photos and documents. I have the Maxtor OneTouch Mini External Hard Drive which backs up my files every night. That gives me great piece of mind if my computer should fail, but I realize it won't help if we are hit by a hurricane. It sits right behind my computer, so if the room with my computer is damaged, the backup drive will be damaged also.

I have backup CDs of my genealogy that I keep in the bank safe deposit box, but I have seen on TV some banks vaults that have been flooded after hurricanes. I've sent CDs to other family members but they live in hurricane areas also.


So, the question is what can I do to make sure I don't lose my genealogy data if we should be hit by a hurricane?


Today, I'm going to take a look at Mozy. It gives 2GB of storage for free where I can upload my photos and files. I haven't tried it yet, so I can't give it a review, but I figure June 1, the first day of hurricane season, is the appropriate day to sign up and give it a try.