Creating family plans for any kind of natural disaster is a great way to keep your children informed, teach them life lessons, and stay prepared. Setting aside time to have a family discussion creates an element of teamwork, and it allows your children to feel like you’re trusting them with a big responsibility. With chilly and snowy weather approaching, now is a great time to create a winter storm family plan. Winter storms are a little different than other natural disasters. Where many storm plans require a route of evacuation, winter storm plans implement a goal of staying warm and staying safe. Therefore, there’s more of a need to keep your supplies stocked inside the home. Here are some key things to touch on when creating a winter storm family plan.
- Explanation: Without making Winter sound scary and unpleasant, it’s important to provide your kids with WHY you’re making a plan. Explaining that nature is powerful and unpredictable is a great way to inform children that storms happen all the time, but it’s good to be prepared for when the powerful ones come along.
- Staying Warm: It’s important to have methods to heat your home that do not require electricity. Whether it’s a fireplace or a battery-operated heater, you never know when your power might go out and how long you’ll be without it. Allowing your children to watch you operate these resources is okay, as long as you trust them not to attempt to ignite them while you’re not in the room.
- Assigned Positions: Take a walk through your home and point out where certain tools are that you’ll need during a winter storm. Flashlights, candles, batteries, matches, dry food, extra water, books and games can be gathered into a bin and placed somewhere accessible in the home. You can call this your “Winter Storm Bin.” Throwing in some extra hats, gloves, socks and warm blankets would also be helpful in staying warm and maintaining body heat.
- Emergency Contacts: Create a list of emergency contacts and show your children where to find it. This can include nearby relatives, neighbors, friends, and officials that they can call if you aren’t available for any reason. Ensure they know how to use the phone, and give them examples of scenarios when this might be helpful.
Depending on your location, some Winters are more severe than others. However, the weather is unpredictable and you can never be too prepared. Having a winter storm family plan could prevent further disasters down the line.
