This summer has defiantly been the summer of storms, health wise, weather wise, and just life wise. Today though, we will be talking about some of our stormiest weather moments and how we prepare for bad weather. I’m not sure why the weather has been so bad in our area this summer. It feels like every other week we have tornado warnings and sever thunderstorms. Luckily, our power as of the writing of this post has only gone out twice. Once during the day for about 45 minutes and once during the night for about 2 hours or so maybe. We have also been blessed and our home and property have not been to damage. All we have had is a few broken limbs. We defiantly have not had the destruction and havoc some of our surrounding cities and states have had.
So, how have we prepared for these kinds of potential emergencies? Well I feel like it has been a work in progress learning process. The first thing we did was locate a safe place in our home with no windows, an interior place. My daughter and I practiced tornado position there, and she now knows where we go in case of tornados. This practicing came after our first bout of tornado warnings, and we figured out the safe place pretty much during the storm itself. Again, you can see this is a work in process.
When tornadic weather is predicted, or we start getting alerts about it, I place very hard large pillows back in our tornado spot. This is so once we get into tornado position in the case we were hit by a tornado we would be prepared. This is so we can get there very quickly and not have to look for our supplies if the situation became an emergency. During some of the warnings we would take out dog and put her in the bathroom. This way she would be in a safe space too. I’m not sure if most people do this or even if this is the best option, but I had to do something. This step is typically pretty early on in the tornado warning process.
One thing that I did with the last power outage was panic and run in fear….just kidding. No, we found lots of flash lights first. Then, we contacted the electric company to report it. I kept an eye on the windows outside for potential hazards and looked at the radar on my phone using a bit of data. I also got out my daughters vTech tablet to keep her calm and occupied. This thing is a literal life saver in power outages. If you already have it charged up, it can be preloaded with your child’s favorite videos. After this it doesn’t require any wifi or data. We have videos like Peppa pig, team umi zumi, and paw patrol. These are some major favorites for kids her age! If you live in a high storm area, or even travel, this tablet works great for both. There is no since in letting your child worry about the storm, you might as well give them, something to occupy them and it also gives some light to the room which is a plus.
When the power came back on for a minute or so and then started to flicker I filled up some bowls and pans of water. While we have bottled water and wet wipes I wanted to have something in case I needed to clean my daughter up or flush a toilet.
During one of the sever storms I thought of putting some of the bottled water back where we have the hard pillows in our safe spot. Not too many as they would hit us over the head flying around, but just like two bottles incase we ever got trapped back there for some reason. I like to be prepared.
Now you have it, our storm protocal. It isn’t much and wasn’t formed over night but rather a series of weeks. If you would rather not piece together your storm preparedness in the same way I did. Here’s some things you can do all in one day to make sure you are prepared for any sever weather or power outages.
Things to prepare:
- Make sure you know a safe spot in your house to go during tornados.
- Practice going there with your children before you get sever weather, so they know tornado position and where to go.
- If you don’t keep the supplies handy there year-round, make sure you know what supplies you can quickly grab and put in your safe space when the weather kicks up. Things like something to protect you from flying debris and bottles of water.
- When sever weather starts to hit draw up some pans of water so that you have water in case of power outages.
- Get a vTech tablet to keep the kids from panic.
- Know the number to report a power outage in your area, or have it written down somewhere with the address, name on the account, and phone number on the account so that anyone in the house hold can call it in. The faster you report the faster it is resolved.
I feel like each area is a little different on the preparation that you need. For instance, if you are on the coast, dealing with fires out in California, in a flood area, or just somewhere with any kind of sever weather besides tornadoes and thunder storms then you will need to prepare different supplies and protocols than the above listed. Remember this is not by any means an official guide to surviving storms, it is just what we do with the weather we have in our area. While some of this information may be helpful to you, you may need to form your own protocol.
Stay Safe this storm season my readers!
Brie
Ps: we also take photo during a power outage or storm to lighten the mood, and make people feel less afraid.
