How to Put Together a Tornado Disaster Plan for Your Family
As with most things in life, the best way to walk away from a disaster unscathed is to put a little energy into advanced planning. Since a tornado can strike with little warning, it’s a good idea to put together a tornado disaster plan for your family and review it often to ensure that everyone understands what will happen in the event of a tornado.
Preparing supplies
While it can be easy to overdo it when trying to anticipate what you’ll need during and after a tornado, this is one situation when it’s best to have more packed than you think you’ll need. Your tornado disaster kit may include:
- Bottled water
- Change of clothes
- First aid supplies
- Flashlight and batteries
- Non-perishable food
- Pet supplies
- Prescription medications
- Weather radio.
When you’re putting together your disaster kit, you may also want to include spare keys, a list of important phone numbers, extra phone chargers and cash or credit cards.
Sheltering from storms
The next step in putting together a tornado disaster plan is to ensure that everyone knows what to do in the event of a tornado. Designate one area of your home as the storm shelter and hold regular drills. If you have younger children in the home, look for ways to make your tornado drills into a game to help them remain calm.
Since your family may not all be at home when severe weather rolls through, be sure that everyone understands how to stay safe. Remind them that while sheltering under an overpass may protect them from hail, it can create a vacuum when a tornado goes over it that can be deadly. Whenever possible, getting inside a building is preferable to staying outside.
Reestablishing communication
When you have a family that’s always on the go, it’s likely that you’ll be separated in the aftermath of a tornado in your area. If this occurs, your first order of business will be to reestablish communication and reunite the family.
Perhaps the easiest way to accomplish this is to assign meeting locations for after a storm. While the hope is that everyone can meet at the first location, having a secondary location will cut down on the panic and indecision that could occur if the primary location is destroyed during the storm. Also, consider designating an out of town friend or family member as your primary point of contact post-storm. This can help you learn about your family’s safety when you’re not able to immediately reunite.