Preparing for Severe Weather: A 3-Step Checklist
By Stephanie Osorno, Marketing Copywriter at Alertus Technologies
It’s National Preparedness Month (NPM) — the time to recognize the importance of planning ahead to keep our communities, families, workplaces, and schools safe — and we're diving into a wide range of preparedness strategies and tips in a series of blogs throughout September!
In case you missed it, our NPM kick-off blog focused on maintaining business continuity before, during, and after emergencies. This week, we explore a three-step checklist for severe weather preparedness.
Severe Weather Preparedness: Why Does it Matter?
Severe weather goes beyond a bad thunderstorm or heavy snow. A severe weather event can come in the form of extremely hazardous tornadoes, hurricanes, hail and dust storms, high winds, cyclones, and more. And while it may seem like severe weather is an occasional occurrence, it’s happening more frequently than you think.
The number of severe weather and natural disaster events in the U.S. increased from an average of 6 annual events to 16 between 2014 and 2020, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). This resulted in exponential property damage and loss of human life. In 2020 alone, a staggering 22 severe weather emergencies caused 262 casualties, and most recently this year, the Northeast has been hit with a series of destructive floods, tornadoes, and hurricanes.
So, what steps can you take to get severe weather ready?
3-Step Checklist
1. Know Your Risks
The most important step of severe weather preparedness is getting familiarized with your area’s weather hazards. To begin, set some time aside for state-specific and local severe weather research. With a better understanding of the type of hazardous weather that is likely to impact your unique location, you can proactively and more easily prepare for severe weather threats. If you live in Florida, for instance, your community may experience frequent tropical storms and hurricanes.
Know Your Risks Checklist:
Here are some things you can do to identify location-based weather risks.
2. Make a Plan
Making a severe weather preparedness plan will help you to act quickly and ensure safety in the event of severe weather. While crafting your plan, you’ll want to account for things such as a potential local communication outage — which is likely during a severe weather emergency — and how you’ll maintain contact with family and friends. Think about who you may appoint for an out-of-state point of contact, the people you want included on your emergency contact list, and which critical documents you’ll need to prepare ahead of time.
Make a Plan Checklist:
Below are a few considerations for an effective severe weather preparedness plan to-do list.
3. Take Action
While you may not be able to prevent severe weather from happening, you can take critical, yet simple actions beforehand to protect you, your family, and your property from potential harm. For example, by simply practicing the severe weather preparedness plan with your family regularly, you’ll increase your chances of successfully enduring future severe weather events. Ask yourself questions like “Is my insurance coverage up to date?” and “Do I have the right emergency supplies at home?” to assess necessary severe weather actions.
Take Action Checklist:
Take a look at the wide range of severe weather preparedness actions you can complete today:
