During severe weather, many things can go wrong. In the Midwest, severe weather can be unpredictable, so planning ahead is essential to your family’s safety. As the Midwest begins to move into severe weather season, what better time than now to discuss your emergency action plan with your family?
Emergency Kits
Preparing emergency kits ensures that you are prepared in the instance your family encounters a disaster. Ready Illinois recommends that items like the following be included in emergency kits:
- Soap, hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes
- Prescription and non-prescription medications
- Infant care items
- Pet care items
- Cash or traveler’s checks
- Copies of important documents
- Sleeping bags
- Fire safety items
- Personal hygiene products
- Matches in a waterproof container
- Cutlery, plates and napkins/paper towels
- Paper and pencils
- A full change of clothing
- Entertainment items for children
This kit should be kept in your home, but additional kits can be kept in your car or at work. For additional details on creating your emergency kit, please visit the Ready Illinois website.
Understand Your Surroundings
Making sure you know essential details about your home and the area you live in is crucial to your family’s safety. The National Weather Service recommends you select a safe location in your home or in your community and communicate this information with your family or those you live with. Storm cellars or basements are the best options for when severe weather hits. FEMA also recommends “safe rooms,” which are reinforced shelters that are built into buildings to protect those inside from severe weather. If neither of these options are available, you should select a location in your home or community that is low to the ground and far away from doors and windows. Bathrooms, closets and windowless hallways are the best options for this.
Places like apartments and mobile homes may have different shelters for severe weather. If you live in an apartment complex, you’ll want to move to the lowest floor. If laundry rooms or other communal spaces are available, take shelter in there away from any windows or doors. Mobile home residents should leave the home and find structured shelter as quickly as possible.
All of these plans should be communicated with your family to understand your emergency action plan when it comes time to use it.
Battery Backup Systems
With severe weather conditions come unpredictable power outages. Stateline Solar can assist with providing solar paired battery backup options that can be customized to either power crucial electrical needs or power the whole home during a power outage. Determining what items would be most needed for you and your family in the event of a power outage will help decide what size battery backup system is ideal for you and your family’s safety when the inevitable occurs.
The battery backup systems Stateline Solar installs are paired to solar panel systems, which means if you’re not ready to make the full leap to battery back up, you have the options of starting with solar first and adding battery backup down the road when you are ready. Simply notify your sales representative of your interest in battery backup, and your solar system can be fitted to be prepared for battery backup whenever you are ready.
Contact the renewable professionals at Stateline Solar for a free consultation – 815-580-3011 or sales@statelinesolar.net
The Illinois Emergency Management Agency and the Office of Homeland Security (IEMA-OHS) designated March as Severe Weather Preparedness Month. Learn more here.