It's never too late to start preparing for a possible tornado and the more prepared you are the more ready you'll feel should disaster strike. But where to start? While tornados range in severity, there are some general preparedness guidelines to follow that will help you prepare and stay safe. So take a breath and let's do this!
1.Gather The Essentials
The first thing to check off your list is packing a go bag or stay bin. A go bag, also known as a bug-out bag, is a bag or bin that you take with you in case you have to evacuate your home while a stay bin is basically a place to gather and store essential supplies you’ll need when sheltering indoors. Regardless of what your plan is, and we’ll talk more about that in the next section, you will need gather essentials for health and safety.
Start with three-days worth of food and water per person. Three days is the general rule but pack more if you have room just in case. Water is measured as one gallon per person per day. All food should be non-perishable and have a manual can opener for cans. Some food suggestions: canned food (meat, vegetables, fruits), protein bars, dry cereal and other non-perishable foods that don’t require cooking or water. If have pets you should be packing for them too.
Once you’ve got your food and water, it’s time to gather medical supplies. Start with an extensive first aid kit. If using a kit already in your home check that nothing is missing. Don’t forget to also include any prescription medications including inhalers and EpiPens. Add in some masks as well.
There are also some safety supplies you should have. Safety whistles so emergency personnel can find you in case you’re covered with debris, duct tape and tarp to help with any damage or leaks, flashlights, batteries, glow sticks in case the power goes out. Avoid matches or flames– gas lines could be broken and open flames could cause an explosion. Bet on the internet being down as well, so in order to stay informed with how the situation is progressing you’ll want a hand-crank radio.
2.Establish Meeting Place
When prepping for a tornado one of the most important things you can do is establish a meeting place. It can be extremely disorienting and scary to not know where members of your family are and not be able to get in touch with them if separated when disaster hits. To prevent this, you should have a predetermined meeting place so that your family knows where to find each other.
3.Sheltering Essentials
Sheltering safely is a hugely important part of making it through a disaster so you will want to be very prepared. The first thing is to figure out where you’ll be sheltering. Does it require you to evacuate your home? Is it in your home?
If you are staying in your home, does it have a basement? If it does then that’s where you will go and that’s where you should be storing all your essentials we spoke of earlier. If you don’t have a basement, then plan to shelter somewhere in the most interior part of the house away from any windows and glass doors. You will also want to make sure that you have some cover. Either stay under a table or cover your head with helmets, heavy blankets, or thick couch cushions.
Of course the most important part is to make sure your family can shelter safely, but you also want to think about the fact that you could be there for a while. Consider having some comfort items like sleeping bags, blankets and pillows. As well as some entertainment items like cards, books, games, and such.
You can’t plan for every situation but keeping these three things at the forefront will put you ahead of the game in the event that a tornado is approaching.
