WISCONSIN — It’s Severe Weather and Tornado Awareness Week in Wisconsin. Each day this week, WTMJ will post a new story related to severe weather and tornado safety.
Today’s story focuses on how to stay prepared and plan ahead for inclement weather incidents. Andrew Beckett, a spokesperson for Wisconsin Emergency Management (WEM), said there is no better time to review, or create your severe weather or tornado emergency plans.
“This week is really an opportunity for everyone in the state of Wisconsin to review their plans and have an idea of what they need to do when severe weather is in the forecast and when there’s an active warning in their area,” said Beckett.
Beckett said if you don’t have an emergency plan you can make one by just writing down and communicating these things with the people you live with:
First, you want to know where your shelter locations are. Whether it be in your basement or a location outside of your home, you want to find somewhere that is stable and structurally rooted into the ground. The lower you can get in your shelter, the better.
Beckett said you should make one of these plans for every place you spend a significant amount of time at. For example, school, work, or just you or your peers’ homes.
Secondly, it is important to create a communication plan with your housemates, and more importantly, your kids, so you can quickly get in touch with them in the case you or someone gets separated from the group.
“You really want to identify not only members of your family, but also somebody who lives outside of your home, whether it’s a grandparent or an aunt or an uncle or a cousin who is designated as sort of an additional family contact that people can route information through, if there were to be an emergency,” said Beckett.
Beckett said making plans like these help “people in Wisconsin stay weather aware, which is really what this whole week is about.” A template for these plans can be found here.
