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How to Prepare for a Big Storm

empty city streets covered in snow and slush

Will you be affected by the big storm coming, either in your travels or at home? What are your best tips on how to prepare for a big storm? I've been seeing a ton of great tips online and thought I'd round some up, but also just start a discussion on what you're doing…

How to Prepare for a Big Storm If You're Worried About Losing Power

  • Charge all your devices and your travel charger(s).
  • Before the storm, unplug or shut down devices that aren't essential.
  • Think about what you'll eat if you can't use your microwave and so forth.
  • Plan how you can avoid opening your freezer or refrigerator during a potential power outage — for example, you may want to put enough in a smaller cooler for the day.
  • Consider filling a bathtub with water so you'll have enough to flush the toilets — this article from Family Handyman looks like it has good advice on different toilet systems and when this might affect you.
  • If you're expecting or if you receive a big snowfall, make sure your outdoor vents are clear to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning — also, confirm your carbon monoxide detectors are working. (If you're traveling, we recently recommended this travel carbon monoxide detector, which has battery backup.) Here's an article from Mass.gov with more info.
  • Also, NYS's emergency management site has a ton of great safety tips for power outages!

How to Prepare for a Big Storm If You're Driving

Hopefully this is obvious advice — here are some more great tips from AAA. My tips:

  • Pay attention to local conditions to determine whether you're going to drive.
  • Leave lots (and lots) of extra room between you and the car in front of you.
  • AAA advises to keep at least half a tank of gas at all times.
  • Dress warmly — if you tend to run errands without a coat (or you've got an older kid who refuses the concept of coats), rethink that. In case there's an accident, you're going to want to be in warm clothes. (But: if you've got littles still in car seats, make sure their seatbelt still fits properly if they're wearing a coat or snowsuit — here's an article from Healthychildren.org that has good advice on snowsuits and car seats.)
  • Keep emergency cold-weather supplies in your car: a warm blanket, flashlight, snow shovel, and so on. Here are tips from AAA.

How to Prepare for a Big Storm if You're Flying

  • Prepare yourself (and your travel partners) emotionally for the fact that your flight may be cancelled.
  • Keep your coat and shoes on the plane with you — even if you're flying somewhere warm, your flight could have an emergency landing somewhere else, and you'll need them.
  • If you're flexible, see if you can rebook your trip.
  • Download the airline's app on your phone for easy rebooking.
  • If your credit card has a concierge service, they might be able to help if you're having trouble through regular means — here's an article from Experian explaining more.

How to Prepare for a Big Storm If Your Area Isn't Used to the Cold

I remember this from the years I lived in D.C. — if you live (or are visiting) a climate that is generally warmer, the infrastructure may not be ready for a big storm or its fallout. I randomly saw this 14-Tweet thread from a Houston weatherman, Travis Herzog, with a lot of great tips, including:

  • Prepare to shelter your outdoor pets from the cold. (Note: If you want to put out a shelter for local stray/feral cats, here are tips from a feral cat rescue group. Don't follow your first instinct and use towels or blankets, because when they get wet, they'll be cold.)
  • Protect your pipes — consider turning off the water to your home and draining the pipes before the freeze begins.
  • Fill your tub with water to flush the toilets.

Those are the big tips I'm seeing — what are you worried about with the big storm? (Are you worried about extreme weather in general, going forward?) What are your best tips for how to prepare for a big storm?

Stock photo via Stencil.

16 Comments

  1. The best tip I ever received for driving in winter (back when we lived in frozen Dakota tundra) was to make sure a cell phone and gloves are zipped into a pocket on your person, in case you get thrown from your car.

    2. That’s such a good tip. Even if you’re just in a rural area and access to light to find where the phone slid is hard.

      My dad’s tips:

      Always have kitty litter to throw under a stuck tire and a small shovel

      Bring a gallon of water, wipes and plastic bags on winter road trips in case you’re stuck on an expressway for hours and need to drink or clean

    3. This might be a silly question, but if you’re strapped in can you still get thrown out of your seat belt? I’ve never been in an accident and that never occurred to me.

      1. Yes, but far more likely and mundane is the scenario where you stop hard and anything loose in your vehicle goes flying to some unreachable crevice, hits something else and breaks, or hits and injures someone in the vehicle.

      2. I think that’s what happened to the person who gave me this tip, but MagicUnicorn is right too.

      3. When my SUV rolled over, I was perfectly safe in my seatbelt just upside down. However my phone went flying. Luckily my car has Embrace and it knew and called the police.

  2. Any recommendations for casually tracking time? I need to start in the new year so I can make a pitch to get help. I don’t want to overcomplicate anything but want to know a rough number of hours I spend on certain tasks. I’m looking for something simple and free, but digital.

    2. If it’s not client billing and you don’t need to be super precise, you can just write down the estimated hours at the end of every week. That’s what I did when my org went through a big time tracking initiative (since abandoned) and it was ok with my boss.

  3. Did the thing (husband’s passport renewal) and made an appointment to do the more complicated second thing (child’s passport renewal) and am now off work for 12 days. Hooray!

    1. Nice! I did the Thing yesterday – went to the Registry of Motor Vehicles to upgrade to a Real ID – and it was an easy 15 minutes. Sometimes the Thing is not nearly as scary as we make it out to be!

  4. It might rain in California! We’re not used to that but trying to prepare. Thanks for thinking of us.

  5. Floridian here. We will watch for falling iguanas. Half the kids don’t own a coat so they wear blankets.

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