Condo Blues: Do You Have an Emergency Weather Plan?

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Do You Have an Emergency Weather Plan?

Last week as my next door neighbors and I were outside and commented how the beautiful clear blue sky, quickly turned into a gray-purple-puke colored Tornado Sky.

The winds kicked up unexpectedly, rain, thunder, and lightening pounded down. Over 300, 000 people in Ohio lost electricity as Mother Nature tossed around trees and power lines with the force of a full on toddler kicking and screaming mega meltdown.

Fortunately, we were one of the lucky few that had electricityThis is surprising because if there is a blackout, we are almost always in it. Often for several days at a time. 

We did not experience a tornado because even those some areas estimated 75+ mile an hour winds, there wasn't any rotation. The crazy, unexpected, snuck up on everyone including the weather service experts, was a derecho.

After experiencing constant blackouts, including two that lasted a week each, Husband and I now have a Household Emergency Plan.

A simple dinner conversation is all it took to plan and prioritize what we would take with us if we ever had to evacuate. 

Husband suggested our plan should be:

1) Go ’round mums.
2) Grab Liz.
3) Head over to the Winchester.
4) Have a cold pint.
5) Wait for this whole thing to blow over.

I think Husband’s been watching too much TV. Can you name the movie his action plan comes from?

Or maybe he read the Center for Disease Control’s Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse post and doesn’t realize that it is a tongue in check way to get people’s attention and encourage them to put together a simple kit and action plan?

It’s pretty funny but it does have some good tips about what you should have with you in the event of  a tornado or hurricane or another type of real emergency.

Since we live in the Land of Tornadoes and Blackouts that Happen Without Warning, this is what we have planned. Where you live and what type of regional situations you may have to deal with (forest fires, hurricanes, Great Robot Upraising, etc.) may make your plan different from ours.
  • We don’t have a basement but we designated a safer interior room in the house as our go to place in the event of a tornado. 
  •  We are prepared with camping gear, a grill, and propane for cooking if the power goes out. 
  • We have several coolers we use to try to keep our priority food from spoiling when we lose power.
  • We try but don't always succeed to keep easily prepared real food on hand just in case. We need to make this a priority.
  • We store everything in plastic storage tubs in our garage to keep them dry. Cardboard boxes would be greener and cheaper but I can't hate on plastic storage tubs because they protected my sentimental handmade Christmas ornaments from a burst water pipe in our old rental. You can call me all sorts of names about relying on plastic storage tubs but the tubs I have are built to last. I won't have to replace them unless they are blown away to the Land of Oz. As always, your green mileage may vary.
What about you? Do you have an emergency plan? Why or why not?  

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