As Hurricane Irma was storming toward the coast, my family and I evacuated. Two days before it was due to hit, the Category 4 hurricane was forecast to go right over my driveway.

After a long ordeal, my wife was able to secure a reservation at a Disney property in Orlando. The drive took seven hours. It normally takes 2 ½ hours.

It is estimated that more than 6 million people left their homes to escape Irma. Millions more stayed put.

Many decided not to leave out of stubbornness, out of faith they’d be OK or because they were afraid to leave their homes unattended.

Yet others simply could not afford to go.

Evacuating from a looming natural disaster costs money. In addition to a few tanks of gas, you need a place to stay and some supplies.

In our case, we were staying in Florida, so we brought plenty of food and water in case there were problems in Orlando too.

Not including extras like a day at one of the Disney parks and a nice dinner a few hours before the storm rolled in, the trip cost us more than $1,000 – just for gas, food and shelter. And we were not in a high-end hotel.

One of my colleagues drove from Miami to New York and stayed with family. It also cost him around $1,000.

He’s lucky… or I should say smart. He had the cash in an emergency fund. A shocking number of people don’t.

In fact, one-third of all Americans don’t have any money saved for emergencies. And what’s a bigger emergency than a potentially lethal natural disaster coming your way?

Most people think of emergency funds as a backup in case they lose their job or source of income. In that case, the emergency fund would help pay for day-to-day living expenses. The thinking is you should have access to money that can cover six months of living expenses.

Many people I know don’t have emergency savings accounts. Instead, they have liquid investments that they could sell if they lost their job and needed to replace income.

However, what happens if you suddenly need to flee? Or if you need to stock up on food, water, fuel and other necessities, knowing they will be in short supply in the coming days?

Here at Wealthy Retirement, we usually focus on strategies to grow your wealth, improve your retirement and increase your investing returns.

But none of that matters if you can’t get yourself and your family out of harm’s way.

In order to do that, you may need cash.

Before the storm hits – while the power is still on – you can probably still use your credit card. Afterward is another story.

Your Visa, gold coins and cryptocurrency won’t help you get food and water in a disaster. Even once I had returned home and had power two days after the storm, my local Home Depot needed to conduct business using cash only.

Investing in stocks and bonds and saving for retirement are all extremely critical. But the most critical financial move you can make is to have about $1,000 in the bank in case of an emergency. And seriously consider keeping a few hundred dollars in cash in your house or somewhere easily accessible in case the emergency is unexpected and you can’t get your money from the bank.

Before you make any other financial decisions, make sure you have access to cash in case of an emergency. It could literally be the difference between life and death.