Category: America’s Prepareathon
Plan and practice a tornado drill
You may not always have advance warning that a tornado is approaching your location. You may not be at home. Taking the time to identify where you would go for the best protection for every place where you spend a lot of time (for example, home, work, school, house of worship) and how you would get there is part of being prepared.
But it is not enough. Actually practicing is as important. The following suggestions are from the FEMA guide, How to Prepare for a Tornado.
- Identify a shelter or other protective location beforehand.
- Practice moving quickly to the protective location.
- Take note of how long it takes you to get there.
- Consider those with disabilities and those with access or functional needs.
Don’t wait — communicate
The Prepare Kansas online challenge* takes place each year during September. September is also National Preparedness Month (NPM). The month finishes big on September 30 with a national day of action, National PrepareAthon! Day.
One of the challenge tasks for Week 1 is to complete a family or workplace communication plan to use in the event of a disaster and communicate the details with everyone who needs to know about it.
If you aren’t sure what to include in your plan, check out this information and the resources at ready.gov
We’ve also posted some helpful links here on the blog.
* There is still time! Take steps ahead of disaster and register by September 6 at http://bit.ly/1pwiiFE
Be prepared: Know the risk
Tornadoes are one of the six most common hazards. Other common hazards include earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, wildfires, and winter storms.
Although they can occur at any time of the year, tornadoes most often occur during the spring and summer. They are most likely to hit between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. but they can — and do — occur at all hours of they day and night.
As shown below, three Kansas counties experienced 4-7 F3 or EF3 or greater tornadoes between 1996 and 2013. Many others experienced 1 – 3. Click on the graphic below to learn how to prepare for a tornado.
