Story Created:
Oct 1, 2009 at 4:23 PM CDT
Story Updated:
Oct 1, 2009 at 4:41 PM CDT
Over the past year, our region has been hit with a number of severe weather events that resulted in widespread and long-lasting power outages. The National Weather Service held a news conference this morning as they kicked off a campaign designed to help people across our area get prepared for the threat of more destructive weather this fall and winter. The theme behind this campaign is "Don't Wait Until It Is Too Late"...and the idea they want to convey is that to be prepared, people need to do three things.
1) Be able to receive warning information at any time and in any location.
2) Have a rapid response action plan for each type of severe weather event.
3) Be able to sustain yourself and your family for an extended period of time after the event.
Today's conference dealt mainly with the third step, emphasizing the need for every family to put together a disaster preparedness kit. Some families may find this to be an expensive and overwhelming task, so the NWS and area emergency managers have compiled a simple list of items that can be inventoried and purchased over a 3 month period, helping you spread out the cost of building your kit. They are recommending that in October, you inventory your food supplies....in November, take stock of your personal hygiene and cooking supplies...and in December, purchase several miscellaneous items that would be necessary for survival.
This is an important task for families to take care of at home, but also one that area businesses should take a look at as well.
For more information on building your home or business disaster kit, go to the Paducah National Weather Service homepage, at http://www.crh.noaa.gov/pah/, or CLICK HERE.
For more information on self-heating meals for use at home or business, visit http://www.heatermeals.com/ or http://www.readymeal.com/.
