Note: This is adapted from a thread I posted on Twitter a few years back. I have been migrating information like this over to my blog since it’s become Birdchan over there.
I originally wrote this in the month of September, which is Disaster Preparedness month. I was encouraging my friends to take a little time to plan what they would do in an emergency. A good resource to get started is to go to https://ready.gov/make-a-plan
Think about what types of disasters you & your family might face, and learn how to prepare for them.
For me, the main danger I might face is severe storms and/or tornadoes. So a lot of my planning centers around that. Theoretically I could see evacuation due to house fire, gas leaks, nearby natural gas well issues, and possibly (but unlikely) large wildfires.
Additionally, I could theoretically see floods, but it would have to be a 1000 year-level catastrophic event- my drainage here is pretty darn good. I got slightly soggy when the Trinity flooded a few years ago. Other areas of my town flooded, but the worst I got was a soggy backyard and impressive flow in the drainage creek at the end of the street. So while it’s good to consider the possibility of that happening, my other plans should take care of most of what I would need anyway, and it’s lower on the list.
Lesser events I have actually experienced, and saw how preparedness helped with are multi-day power outages, water outages, and ice storms.
Think about the same kinds of things – what severe weather happens in your area? Do you get earthquakes or other kinds of natural disasters like rock or landslides? Do you live near a rail line or chemical storage facilities? Is there an airport nearby that you’re along the flight path for (most crashes occur soon after take off or on the approach to landing)?
Think about what bad things might happen inside your home, such as fire or gas leaks.
Now consider: if something happens to make your home uninhabitable, either temporarily or more long term (i.e. requiring major repair or rebuilding) where would you go? What are the most important things you need while you can’t access your home? How would you get news about the event starting, the progress of mitigation, and when it’s safe to return?
How would you contact your family & let them know where to meet you if you weren’t all together at the time of the event?
That’s your homework right now – determine what the most likely disasters to affect you might be, what things you need, how to get information, and how to gather & safeguard your family (whatever family looks like for you) while disaster occurs.
Awhile back I had someone who recently moved to Texas from a place that doesn’t really get tornados express that they were confused between Tornado Watches versus Tornado Warnings, so I created a thread on Twitter with a bit of an explainer & what to do when you are under a Watch or a Warning. With a little polishing, here is that explanation all on one page!
A tornado watch means that conditions are right for the possibility that tornados will develop. It’s TIME for you to keep a WATCHFUL eye & do what you can to prepare, just in case. All the ingredients are present for a tornado, they just haven’t combined in a way that makes them.
A tornado WARNING means that either:
a person (that can be a member of the public, storm spotters, or a law enforcement officer) has visually seen a tornado & reported it
a funnel cloud (basically a tornado that is just coming out of a cloud bottom & hasn’t reached ground – it may or may not ever touch ground) has been reported
strong rotation is seen on weather radar
or a water spout (essentially a tornado over water) is heading for land.
Lots of folks say images like this help them remember which is which!
Cupcake watch: shows the ingredients that go into making cupcakes Cupcake warning: shows a cupcake
So what should you do if your weather person says you are under a tornado watch?
The first thing I usually do, is either put on a pair of sturdy shoes or make sure I know where they are and put them in a place where I can easily grab them in case I need them. You do NOT want to be barefoot in a debris field, especially if you can’t remember the date of your last tetanus shot.
Plug in your cell phone to charge the battery if it’s not full. Your phone is an important tool you can use to get information and communicate with others.
Know where your people are! And pets! If you have kids at home, get them in the house, and get their shoes on or know where they are. Get your pets inside, and if they tend to be scared of bad weather, it may be best to crate them/put them in a carrier now. You don’t want to have to drag a frightened animal out of a hiding place, or try to handle it when it is trying to get to a hiding place.
Decide where the best place to shelter in your house is NOW while you have time to think it over. Ideally, you want a windowless room on the ground floor, in the interior of the house, as close to the center as possible. Put as many walls between you and the outside of the house as possible. If you have a basement, that’s even better, provided that floods are not a danger.
I have a closet under the stairs, & it is probably the best place in my house. All my bathrooms are near the outside edges of my house or on the second story. But I do use my guest half bath when there’s less warning since I don’t have to pull stuff out of it go get inside.
Bathrooms are favored if they are on the ground floor, have no windows, & are near the center of the house. Plus the bathtub makes a good place to duck & cover for protection.
If you have a bike helmet (motor or pedal) or other noggin protecting headgear, it can give an extra bit of help as well, so getting it handy is useful. If a tornado is coming, put it on!
If you have a battery powered radio, get it and make sure the batteries are fresh. Set it in or near your chosen shelter. If you don’t have one, I HIGHLY recommend getting a weather radio that can use batteries or run by hand crank.
If the electricity goes out, you don’t want to be in the dark literally AND figuratively without an idea of how long the storm is going to hang around. Have a flashlight or lantern handy and make sure it is working and you have fresh batteries available. Ask me how I know… embarrassed laugh
If you have a Go Bag, make sure it’s handy as well. See this post for how to start yours.
That’s pretty much it for a Watch. Just continue to monitor your choice of weather persons/station to keep an eye on things.
If you are not at home when a Watch is issued, it might be a good idea to head there if you can make it before the storm arrives. You don’t want to be caught outside or be in a car during a tornado. That’s… not good. You will have a bad day. If you cannot head home, look for a place you can take shelter if needed.
If you live in a mobile home/trailer/RV, you need to decide ahead of time where to go in case of a Warning, before you are in an emergency. You need to go to a building with a foundation or a purpose-built tornado shelter. Even if your trailer is tied/anchored, it’s not safe. See https://youtu.be/HeOsOxecOaw for more information. Please know, this isn’t me hating on mobile homes, BTW. I lived in mobile homes for about half my first 23 years. They can be fine homes, but they are NOT safe in severe weather.
Ok, so you’re prepared, you’re keeping an eye on the sky. You are watching. Now, what if a Warning is issued? First, figure out if the tornado is heading your way or not. Listen or Watch your local weather reporting so you know! Either television or radio.
Does your area have an emergency siren system? Do you know what a siren sounds like? Here’s an example: https://youtu.be/WXsTHg_DiYA
Be aware that emergency sirens are not designed to be heard from within a building although they sometimes can! That’s why it’s important to have some device or devices that you can receive emergency alerts on, such as a weather radio or your cell phone.
While they are commonly called “tornado sirens” they are also sounded in my town and in towns around me in the event of:
hail bigger than 1.75 inches
winds in excess of 70mph
chemical spills
other state/national emergencies
That’s why your crank/battery radio is so important! You need to know exactly WHAT emergency that siren is warning you of.
Sirens are tested on a regular schedule providing the weather is good. They don’t test unless it’s clear, & they always test at the same time & the same day each month.
If a Warning is issued and a tornado is heading your way, get you & your family into your place of shelter, put on your shoes if you haven’t already, and hold on.
I’ve always heard it’s a good idea to get in the tub & pull a mattress from the bed over you, & I’ve heard people talk about how they did it before. But usually, it’s a twin or a crib mattress. I don’t think I could hoist anything bigger than that & wrangle it into place in the time you have to seek shelter. If I think ahead I do grab the pillows off my bed, but that king size ain’t going in a closet under the stairs.
Keep listening to your radio, so you know when it’s clear & safe to come out. But if the tornado is actually near you, you probably can hear it & nothing else till it’s gone anyway.
Folks often say tornadoes sound like a freight train. I’ve been through a couple & it’s never sounded like that to me, but I have weird ears. Here’s an example of what a tornado sounds like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE8oOfWocVc&t=1s
BTW: The people filming those videos are storm chasers, not regular humans. DO NOT do the FOOL ASS THING they are doing. They have special dispensation from the trickster gods to be fool ass fools, and bless them for it. They are useful fools who do a great service.
If you make it through mostly intact, keep the fam & pets indoors for now. Take a peek outside & look for downed power lines. DO NOT APPROACH THEM and FFS don’t touch them if they are. Call your local services & report.
Watch for debris on the ground & walk carefully. Don’t go in any collapsed buildings unless you need to rescue someone, in which case I didn’t tell you to do that & you should really call emergency services. But where you safely can, please help your neighbors.
Don’t go feckin’ sightseeing in neighborhoods that get hit. Don’t get in the way with your damn rubbernecking. Just don’t do it.
Tornadoes can be really scary, but the more you know, the more it helps. Don’t make fun of your kids for being scared, ok. Smol Skulleigh was terrified of tornadoes & the jeers Did Not Help. What helped was knowledge!
I live in Texas, where the sky regularly tries to kill us. If it’s not thunderstorms, it’s hail, and if it’s not that, it’s tornados. Folks to the south have hurricanes, and to the west and southwest have wildfires to contend with as well. Disasters can cause homes to be uninhabitable until repairs can be made.
A few months into the pandemic, in 2020, I had to evacuate my house and neighborhood for about half a day because a natural gas line caught on fire and there was a danger of explosion. In 2021 Texas experienced a winter storm that caused power outages – some for multiple days – across the state during very cold weather, and I again had to leave and go to stay with friends so I didn’t freeze. I’ve also had extended power outages during the height of summer, in over-100 degrees Fahrenheit weather.
Thankfully I already had a prepared go-bag and a charged-up power station, so I was able to quickly grab what I needed and get out of the house.
What is a go-bag, you might ask? It’s basically a kit that you can grab and leave your house quickly in an emergency, and it contains basic supplies that you will need in a disaster if you are required to leave your home.
You can find a checklist at Ready.gov that outlines everything they recommend, but I find that some people feel that list is intimidating, or it sounds expensive – and it can be if you are building it all from scratch and buying things specifically for it, and if you are creating a kit for multiple people such as your family for several days as they recommend.
What I suggest is starting with enough for a one-day evacuation with things you may already have. The majority of the times I’ve had to bug out of my house I’ve only had to be gone for a half or single day. Once you have your go-bag set up, you can gradually add to it as time goes by to make it useful for a longer period of time.
Grab a bag of some sort. This doesn’t have to be fancy, you probably have a freebie canvas or cloth bag that you got from somewhere or one with art you once loved printed on it, but that you aren’t actively using stuffed in a closet somewhere. I just walked into my clothes closet and found three without even trying! Don’t worry if it doesn’t zip or snap at the top, but if it does, that’s a bonus!
Now you’re going to start adding things to your bag. I tend to think about the things that go in as modules or groupings of items, and if you can put those things in smaller bags inside the bigger bag, you’ll make your life easier, especially if your outer bag doesn’t have a way to close it. You can use zip pouches, ziplock bags, or even tie things up in a spare bandana or scarf (which itself can be handy in an emergency, as a sling, a filter, a hot or cold compress, or a head covering).
Here are the modules/categories I tend to group things into:
Clothing
Personal care
First aid
Power & Tech
Documents
Food & water
Entertainment
You may be able to combine some of these groupings – such as personal care and first aid, or tucking documents into your power & tech module. Use your best judgment.
Clothing: Is there an outfit that you don’t wear much but still fits? Stick it in there. At the very least, put in a change of underwear & socks. After a stressful day, it can really make you feel better to have warm feet. I really do recommend putting the underwear and socks in a zip bag to keep them clean and dry. No one wants to put on damp undies.
Personal Care: Grab a roll of TP – it doesn’t even have to be a full roll, to save space you can grab a roll that’s halfway used from your bathroom. To further save space, squash the roll flat. I highly recommend popping it in its own ziplock bag to keep it dry. If you need/use them, put in tampons or pads, enough for a day, at the least. If you have spare travel-sized toiletries, like hotels provide, you can add those, or pick some up from a store. Add in a toothbrush and toothpaste. If you can, a packet of baby wipes will provide you a way to get at least slightly clean if you don’t have access to a shower or bath.
First Aid: bandaids, burn ointment, antibacterial ointment, a small container of your preferred painkiller (it’s a good idea to note the expiration date), and any daily medications you require. You can purchase small first aid kits that you can add your own medications to, but don’t forget to rotate the ointments/creams out when they expire!
Power & Tech: If you have a spare charging cable & power brick for your phone or other electronic devices it’s a good idea to have it in your go-bag, so you don’t have to remember where your usual one is while stressed or have to crawl under or behind furniture to unplug it when you’re trying to get going quickly. A power bank for recharging your phone or other devices is also a good thing to have in case you can’t find a place to plug in. This module is also a good place for a USB thumb drive with any important data you may need as a backup – that can be a list of addresses and phone numbers of family and friends, a password protected list of your own account numbers and passwords, or whatever data is valuable to you. This is also a good place to add in a small flashlight or headlamp, and batteries for it.
Documents: I highly recommend this bag also being a waterproof one, and you can add in things like your passport, copies of medical or eyeglass prescriptions, copies of your insurance policies, or other important papers you might need if you end up having to be away from home for an extended period. I also tend to tuck in a little cash or gift cards for chain stores that tend to be widespread, like Target or Wal-mart so you can pick up items that you might have forgotten.
Food & Water: It is recommended that you have enough water for each person in your group to have 1 gallon per day. That can be very bulky and heavy, especially if you do not have your own method of transportation. I recommend that you at least have a sturdy 1-liter water container already filled and possibly later add a filter such as a Sawyer or LifeStraw. You probably have a water bottle that you have been given that you can use. For food, some sort of snack that you commonly already eat & keep in your pantry is a good idea so that you can keep it rotated out and not worry about it being expired. Things like granola bars, packets of tuna salad and crackers, peanut butter, and such things are good. Some people recommend MREs (Meals Ready to Eat – military meals intended for soldiers on the march) and dehydrated hiker meals, but they are generally high in salt and if you’re not used to them, can be unappealing and difficult to prepare in a stressful situation. If you are willing to add in some method of heating water, such as a backpacker’s stove, you can add in things like instant oatmeal, ramen, and hot drinks like tea, instant coffee, or instant cocoa. A hot meal or drink can make you feel human again!
Entertainment: Most emergencies that result in your needing to leave your home involve a whole lot of waiting around to be able to return. It’s good to have something to do during that time. This is a small module that can make a big difference. It can be as simple as a deck of cards to play solitaire on your own or go fish or even poker with your family or friends. It could be a small sketchpad and pencils for drawing or playing tic-tac-toe or hangman. You might tuck in a paperback copy of your favorite book. Give yourself something to do besides worry and pace!
Now you have the basics of a go-bag put together, and you can expand it to multiple days as you wish, and start customizing it for what you actually need. Create your own checklist based on the above info, and based on the recommendations at Ready.gov, and keep it with your go-bag so you can replace things as needed. Congratulations – now you’re prepared!
Skulleigh.com 