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| Ice on the branch of a shrub at my house |
We all joked and snickered when we first heard about the snow storms coming and with that said, how did you survive the power outage? What hardships did you have when the power stayed out longer than you thought?
What could you have done to have been better prepared?
I can sum it up in one word: COLD.
I wanted to learn more about what the experts say about preparing for this kind of event.
- Be Informed
- Make a Plan
- Build a Kit
- Get Involved
Be Informed:
- Before winter, add the following supplies to your emergency kit:
- Rock salt or more environmentally safe products to melt ice on walkways. In our humid area, this is difficult to store.
- Sand to improve traction. I fellow educator posted on his Facebook page that he "used kitty litter".
- Snow shovels and other snow removal equipment. I've lived here for 58 years and never seen a time I would use a snow shovel. However, a square front shovel can be used for may year round tasks and works on sidewalks too.
- Sufficient heating fuel. You may become isolated in your home and regular fuel sources may be cut off. Store a good supply of dry, seasoned wood for your fireplace or wood-burning stove.
- Adequate clothing and blankets to keep you warm. If you have not gained too much weight since the last time you went duck hunting, those are cloths made for no heat. Layering worked for me.
- Make a Family Plan. What do you do if a limb comes though your roof or lands on your vehicle? What do you do when the power is off over 24 hours? Do you have a burglar alarm? If so, the batteries in them do not last forever. Replace them every four years. Your monitoring service will try to call you when your battery starts running low. There are steps you must take to protect your expensive alarm equipment. Make sure you contact your service provider well in advance and ask them about what to do. Your family may not be together when disaster strikes, so it is important to know how you will contact one another, how you will get back together and what you will do in case of an emergency. Have your phone numbers in your phone, backed up on your computer or tablet. Make sure you have that file downloaded to your device. If the battery dies on one device, your contact info needs to be available on them all. This is a good use of one of those water proof notepads.
- Listen to a NOAA Weather Radio or other local news channels for critical information from the National Weather Service (NWS). Be alert to changing weather conditions. If your weather radio is not receiving the weekly test alerts, be safe and attend a Weather Radio Programming event. My recommendation, when you have weather radio problems: buy a new radio, follow the instructions and setup the radio or get help.
- Minimize travel. If travel is necessary, keep a disaster supplies kit in your vehicle. I volunteered to stream video for a TV Weather crew. I should have loaded a disaster supplies kit in my vehicle for that adventure. I called it Storm Creeping instead of Storm Chasing. Instead of chasing and running fast like my pants were on fire, I eased out on the road and never got over 40 MPH. That was only on a stretch of road I has just driven on and felt very confident that it was completely dry. When it was sleeting, and the road was still too warm for accumulations, I creeped along.
- Bring pets/companion animals inside during winter weather. Move other animals or livestock to sheltered areas with non-frozen drinking water. One more tip from my dog groomer, hay. If you have animals in a shelter, make sure they have fresh, dry soft hay. As your local farm supply or dog groomer where to get the soft kind of hay. My pet is an inside dog.
