Casey mentioned it in another post, so I thought I'd go ahead and put it out there for everyone to see. The current idea under consideration for permed PCs works like this. If you draw Red and are taken by the Death Shade, your character is gone for good. Because you're a loyal customer, however, we don't want to make you start again from scratch. Thus, you will likely be allowed to play a new PC with half the skill points (rounded up) of your old PC.
Naturally, we still can't make new characters on site. The easiest way to manage your backup character, then, is to keep an NPC simultaneously up-to-date. If your PC perms mid-event, we will be able to pull up your NPC, verify that he or she has the correct number of skill points, and allow you to go back into play with minimal downtime.
Note that this isn't a requirement. If the worst should happen to your PC, however, it's better to be ready, so I'd strongly recommend it.