Gearing Up for Tornado Season in Oklahoma
While this might seem like a weird topic for a metaphysical-themed blog, if you put it in the holistic context of body-mind-spirit it makes a lot of sense. (We’re planning on hosting self-defense classes at the new store for the same reason.)
Ah, Oklahoma. What can you say about the weather here? Not too cold, usually, which is really nice. We have enough beautiful days to really make it worthwhile to put up with the accompanying allergens (tree pollen, ragweed, etc).
But in the spring, Mutha Nature puts on her leathers and goes on a violent spree from time to time. WtF is up with that, Momma N? Well, never mind the cause: severe weather is on the menu from March through June, and if you live in Oklahoma you just have to expect it and be prepared for it.
Make a Disaster Kit.
Your disaster kit should be stashed in your emergency area; use a covered plastic bin. Include:
- a basic first aid kit (lots of bandages for cuts from glass and puncture wounds)
- several water bottles
- a few terrycloth towels
- paper towels
- antibacterial cleanser
- baby wipes
- a box of dust masks. Tornadoes are messy, throwing that red mud everywhere!
- leather gloves if you have to move sharp or pointy things
- rubber-type gloves (latex, etc)
- emergency rations, like Clif Bars, enough to get you through a couple days
- a whistle, because if you get stuck inside this will let people know to dig you out!
- your family’s household notebook. More on this below.
There is always a huge public response to tornado victims, so you won’t necessarily need to stash food, like you would if you were in a hurricane area. But it might be a while before you get fed again and people get grumpy if they don’t eat.
I keep red towels for emergencies on the theory that the “patient” can’t see how much blood there is and therefore won’t be as likely to freak out. Dark colors work too.
Optional items:
- a hand-crank flashlight
- a hand-crank radio
- a change of clothes for each family member
- some toiletries (soap, toothpaste, etc) in case you have to spend the night at a shelter.
More important than toothpaste is a pair of tennis shoes, because if you have to climb through rubble, you will not want to be barefoot. An easy way to do that is if you wear out some sneakers or hiking shoes, instead of throwing them out, stick them in a plastic bag and stash them in your safe room. (The bag keeps the dust bunnies out.) Otherwise just know where your tough-soled shoes are and keep them close at hand (at foot?) during storm season.
What we do is when we see the potential for tornadic activity, everyone in the household is responsible for throwing together a go bag of their clothes, toiletries, laptop, eReader, mp3 player, cell phone charger, medications, etc. Being in a shelter is pretty boring, so be sure to put in a book at the very least.
Candles are a bad idea – natural gas is probably going to be leaking, and if not that, then possibly gasoline fumes from overturned vehicles, or vapors from spilled household chemicals.
So, no candles, OK? Great, let’s move along.
The Household Notebook and Personal Security
If you are in a natural disaster, or really any kind of emergency situation, it’s so much easier to get your bearings or to have others step in to help if you have some important information written down somewhere.
In a loose-leaf notebook, preferably using those plastic page protector things, keep the following documents and information:
- emergency contact information – people who should be notified and their contact info
- home and auto insurance policies, especially the pages that show your coverage!
- an inventory of your household stuff, with make, model, and serial numbers where possible
- copy of your lease or deed to your home
- copies of the titles to your vehicles
- a certified copy of all family members’ birth certificates and social security cards
- a copy of everyone’s photo ID cards, such as school ID and/or driver’s licenses
- copy of your passport
- a current picture of each family member, including pets
- health insurance registration cards or other paperwork verifying your health care status
- doctors, dentists, optometrists contact information
- a copy of all prescriptions being taken by people and pets
- a copy of your vision prescription in case you have to get new glasses
- child custody paperwork!
- phone numbers for professionals you work with – lawyer, accountant, child care provider, personal chef, chauffeur, and those guys who come fix stuff when it breaks
- banking information – account numbers, institutions, and check/ATM card numbers
- credit card info – make a copy of the front and back of the card. Make sure you have the customer service phone number on the paper, too.
- sealed copy of your will
- any other documents you might need in an emergency, as you see fit.
So you’re thinking, OH MY GOD THAT’S AN INVITATION FOR IDENTITY THEFT!!! And if you’re not thinking that, you should be. Yes, yes it is. Big time. Which is why you are NOT going to leave this documentation just lying around any old place where a common thief or workman or whoever happens to be hanging around with your teenagers can pick it up and make off with it. You are going to put this in a very safe place, such as your safe room, at the bottom of your emergency bin. And then you are NOT going to tell anyone about it, other than your family members, and your highly trusted person who will be digging you out and taking your unconscious butt to the hospital.
If you have a home-based business, include your vital business records in a second notebook.
If you think about it, uh, where are you storing that information right now? Get it in a safe place!
Your Super-Secret USB Drive
One of the things we learned from Hurricane Katrina is that in a storm-related disaster, your documents might get destroyed, or get wet and start to mold before you can get back in there to rescue them. So scan things into pdfs – everything mentioned above, plus
- a text file with your ownership information!
- a document saying whom to call (in case you are found unconscious wearing the drive) and your health information
- a document including photos of your family (including pets), who they are, physical description, any distiguishing marks, and health information
- marriage license
- pet registration, vet and groomer information
- gun licenses, carry and conceal permit, hunting or fishing licenses
- the past couple years of tax returns
- some favorite family recipes – more important than you might think
- a comprehensive home inventory, with photos and video
- important photos you would really grieve over if you lost
- scans of diplomas and professional certifications
- website login and password information, especially for your utility companies
- security questions and answers if someone has to go in and deactivate all your accounts
- backup of your cell phone contacts and address book
- backup of your browser boomkarks
- a copy of a calendar with important dates, not only birthdays but also upcoming appointments like doctor appointments
Make separate directories for things according to your privacy needs. Put the urgent emergency information (the first three documents) in a file called “emergency”, “open first”, “urgent”, or something similar, something a responder will know to open it up right away.
Other important information, like your hunting license or diplomas, don’t need too much protection, but password protecting that directory is never a bad idea.
Super secret information that is nobody’s beeswax but your own, you’ll want to protect with strong measures. Encrypt the files individually, zip them up, encrypt that file, and then password protect the directory you put it in.
You can email these things to yourself if you have a very secure host. If you get bonked on the head and lose your memory, it would be a good idea for a second person to have the password. Be subtle, use it in a sentence, or something – don’t just send an email that says “the password to my super secret USB drive is sasQu@tch”.
HIDE the drive in your disaster area, in a ziplock to keep it from getting wet. If you have relatives and/or friends you can trust, you might want to make a second copy and let someone else hang onto it, but be extremely careful about where it goes. Bring it with you if you have to go to a shelter but otherwise leave the thing at home. The city cops are really good about managing a disaster area, but you may experience looting if you are in a rural area.
As regular maintenance, make backups of your cell phone directory, address book, browser bookmarks, important mail and documents, and especially your digital photo album. We keep ours on an external drive that’s stashed in a very secure place away from the computer. We were robbed a few years ago, and the thieves took the external drives, causing us to lose a lot of precious photos. We were prepared for a crash, not a theft. A natural disaster can be a lot like a theft, so think of things in those terms.
A bank’s safe deposit area is almost never compromised by a tornado, so if you have a safe deposit box, put your USB drive and backup drive in it. An external laptop sized drive will fit into the smallest size box (keep it in an anti static resealable bag).
During tornado season, keep your habitat cleaned up.
It helps to prevent your stuff from blowing all over the place if it doesn’t start out looking like a tornado hit it! This is easier said than done for most people, but if the season starts out stormy, just do your best to put things away when you are done using them and work on cleaning up those problem areas. Ask yourself, “do I want a FEMA volunteer thinking I’m a slob when they come help me move my neighbor’s car off my roof?” That should provide enough inspiration to keep you going. It also makes it a lot easier to grab stuff as the sirens are going off.
Also get your yard cleaned up. Keep all your clutter in your garage or shed, not loose where it can become a missile in 100mph winds. Cut the grass regularly, and spray for ticks as soon as you can in the season, not afterwards when half your house is in the front yard. I got Colorado Fever and a friend of mine got Lyme Disease when we sustained tick bites while helping a mutual friend remove other people’s stuff from her yard following a nasty tornado. We were out of commission for weeks and she had to do most of the cleanup herself.
For cleanup, you’ll want a lot of those heavy-duty yard waste bags. The contractor style ones. They can be pricey, so maybe buy one box each month and keep them in your disaster area. (How many bags you will need kind of depends on how many trees your neighbors have.) They can hold broken glass and pokey metal bits. Glass is probably the biggest problem, so you will also want to stock some heavy duty gloves for everyone. Don’t forget sunscreen and especially bug spray.
That’s all I can think of at the moment – let’s hear your tips too! Also, if you know of mobile-friendly URLs for live local weather updates (such as your local news channel) please post them in the comments. During the last round of severe weather, I was able to connect my computer to the internet since we have a UPS (uninterruptable power supply) and the cable modem still worked even though the power was out. But a lot of the folks online were connected via their cell phones’ mobile browsers. The cell towers will most likely still work even if your landlines are down and the power is out.
Stay safe!
