Summer is Disaster Season

While I don't worry too much about disaster striking, there have been a lot of awful things happening all over the world, the US and my state. While I think disaster awareness month is in the spring, I recommend that you take time to think about the types of disasters likely to hit your geographic area and whether you're prepared.

In my area, we have tornadoes, hail and snowstorms. If there's a tornado, there's really nothing you can do besides go to the safest place where you are. We have basements around here, so the safest place is usually the basement away from windows, rather than the storm cellar like in The Wizard of Oz. About all you can do is try to get inside. There was a huge tornado near here earlier this summer that caused millions of dollars in damage. A few years ago, wouldn't have been many houses in the area, but it was developed during the housing boom. There was also a huge hail storm which caused a lot of damage.

Winter has been pretty quiet lately, so no worries; in the event of a power outage, I have candles, matches, flashlights and batteries. For blizzards and being trapped at home due to lack of plowing? I typically have food and beverages that would get me through.

I'm at a high enough point geographically that flooding isn't a consideration; there have been floods, but not near here. Flash flood warnings came and went while we had some serious rain going on, but luckily occurred at times I was home. The not working has interfered with my plans to buy new tires, so I'm a bit nervous about driving in heavy rain.