Sheldon, Iowa — This is Severe Weather Awareness Week in Iowa. Each day this week, the National Weather Service is focusing on a different severe weather topic.
Warning Coordination Meteorologist Peter Rogers at the Sioux Falls office of the National Weather Service says that today’s topic is family preparedness.
(as said:) “Going back to the idea of making sure that you have a severe weather safety plan in effect, whether it be at your home or your business or at your workplace so that when severe weather strikes… do you know what to do and where to go? And so if those plans aren’t in place right now, this is a great time of year to start being — to start talking about that.”
Emergency management officials tell us that disasters of all kinds disrupt hundreds of thousands of lives every year. O’Brien County Emergency Management Director Jared Johnson says that to prepare for disasters, you should find out what’s likely to happen in your area.
(as said:) “It’s good to know the different risks in the area that you live and also in the area that you work. Some of the hazards that we may face in our area include flash floods, thunderstorms, severe wind, hail. We face snowstorms, and then we also need to prepare for the potential for a tornado. So it’s good to know what type of risks are in the area that you live so you can try to prepare and mitigate for those risks.”
He says one of the things you should have is a disaster “go kit” for use when you might have to evacuate or shelter in place.
(As said:) “…what to do to build a kit and items to include in that kit — so some items that we recommend an emergency kit include water, non-perishable food, weather radio, blankets… sometimes it’s good to include personal hygiene items, and then extra batteries and flashlights as well. There is information over what to include in an emergency preparedness kit on the website called beready.iowa.gov. There’s also ready.gov which provides information to the public over items to include in the kit.”
That site again is www.beready.iowa.gov
