Preparing for Extreme Weather

Simple Ways to Prepare for Extreme Weather

Unfortunately, extreme weather is a reality these days all over the world, and we offer some tips we’ve learned through experiencing extreme weather for years. In the last few years, many of us have experienced cyclones, hurricanes, floods, drought, forest fires, bomb cyclones, and derechos. All of these weather phenomena up-end our lives to one degree or another, sometimes the consequences are irreversible.

Since many of us have personally experienced the havoc extreme weather can do to our lives, we wanted to share some of the hard-earned knowledge we have gathered over the years to help you weather what mother nature dishes out.

We will offer some simple and quick ideas along with long-term planning ideas we hope can help you in some small way. Many of our suggestions take into account that many times you don’t have that much notice in an emergency to leave your home or prepare for extreme situations.

The Basics of Preparing for Extreme Weather

All over the internet, you can find the basics of preparing for extreme weather.

• Have a Plan: that covers different types of emergencies
• Know Your Options & Where to Go for Help: make your list, make copies, store one in each vehicle, plastic laminate your options list
• Stock Up on Essentials: Water, Food, Flashlights & Headlamps: headlamps are essential when you need to hands for tasks
• Water on Hand: fill up your bathtub and safe water containers
• Food: use up the food you have on hand in the refrigerator and freezer a week before if you have notice
• Prepare for Outages: make sure you have a plan for every type of emergency
• Set Up Your Communication Network: have a list on your phone and printed on essential numbers to call in an emergency and of friends and family
• Stay Informed: have a list of sources for your area so that you can stay informed of need-to-know information

Create an Emergency Packing List

I’ve learned over the years how important it is to have an emergency packing list. When an emergency or extreme weather hits is not the time to try to remember what is essential to pack. Have your list of prescriptions and supplements included on your emergency packing list. I have my packing list laminated. I also have bags out prior to the time of year when emergencies can strike, so it’s quick to pack up and leave if necessary.

I also invested in a rooftop box for my SUV to give us extra room for essentials. With two Labradors, it’s amazing how space dogs, their stuff, dog food, and your gear can take up. We pack things like camp chairs, sleeping bags, food, and water bowls at the beginning of any extreme weather season, so we have less packing to do in an emergency.

Keep Your Vehicles Fueled

Because emergencies can happen any time of year, I’ve made a habit of keeping all our vehicles fueled at all times. I also invested in a siphon pump to pump gas out of vehicles for generators and to drain generators at the end of the season and put the gas back into our vehicles. Gas stations can be tough to find in an emergency and fuel is essential for safety. A word of advice to our electric vehicle people electric vehicles are great, but for extreme emergencies when power is down it’s great to have a gas-fueled vehicle at hand.

Backup Generators & Standby Generators

A handy device I bought last year is a portable car jump starter with an air compressor and USB ports for keeping cell phones charged in emergencies, jump-starting even hybrid vehicles, and inflating tires in an emergency.

If you have the funds and time installing a backup whole-house generator with either a 100-amp or 200-amp panel is a great way to go to power your house when electricity is not available. The investment will pay off if you lose power often and it adds to the value of your home.

Standby generators are the next best thing. We invested in an inverter dual-fuel electric start generator that can power the essentials of our home. I like it because propane is easy to store and it’s simple to start. Most of the technology in our homes needs an inverter generator these days because they need a constant current. If you have an older generator, because we have two, we have a UPC battery backup between our gas generators that have been going strong for twenty years and the electronics in our home and outbuildings.

Have Food That Doesn’t Require Refrigeration

This is a tip I can’t stress enough with prolonged power outages and powering your home with a backup generator. Before extreme weather, I ensure I have food that doesn’t require refrigeration or lots of meal prep. Before extreme weather, I stock up on nuts, cereal, granola, bars, dried fruit, canned beans, tortillas, bread, peanut butter, and canned smoothies. Stock up on food that is good fuel for your body and also can be taken along easily if you need to evacuate.

Evacuation Tools for Cooking

We have 6-gallon jerry cans non-PBA that we use for keeping drinking water safe in case of a power outage. One of these can easily be strapped to my SUV to bring along in case we need to evacuate. I have a small portable gas grill with a burner that can double as an oven if need be and has come in handy so many times. We also have a small cook kit stored and ready to go with a frying pan, a couple of pots, and utensils, so we aren’t hunting for them if we need to leave home quickly.

Make Your Well Gravity Feed

If you are fortunate to have your well above your home it’s a simple DIY task to make your water storage tank gravity feed to your house when you have no power. A couple of ball valves, and a large bypass switch and you are good to go. This is a DIY project that takes minimal plumbing tools and skills and just a few hours to allow your house to have water when there isn’t power.

Portable Power Situations

Westinghouse, Anker, Jackery, and more make portable power sources that come in handy during an evacuation. Some solar models produce 300-500 watts or fast charging models that power up in less than an hour and can be plugged in where there is power. We also have a solar-powered crank radio as a backup to our SUV radio that gets AM, FM, and NOAA and is equipped with a flashlight that costs under $30.

Cloud Backup & External Drive Backups for Computers

We have our company and personal computers backed up in the cloud and we also have a portable HD for each computer with current backup of all computer content. We also started taking our older, non-digital photos a few years ago and are in the process of saving them to a portable HD. Too many friends have lost all their older family photos to fires and floods over the years so this task went on our list.

Books are written about preparing for extreme weather and evacuations, but we wanted to share what has personally helped us weather 3 floods, 2 fire evacuations, and 2 bomb cyclones over the years. As a family you become somewhat of an expert in preparation so you know you have your bases covered if extreme weather situations occur. We at Shed Windows and More want you to know that we are here for you during extreme weather situations, whether you need only a few items that got damaged or you need a quote for insurance purposes for a quote on windows and doors for your whole house we will help any way we can.