(Undated)– With the threat for severe weather today (Mon.) and this evening comes a reminder from to be prepared. Dickinson County Emergency Management Coordinator Mike Ehret says there are several things we can do now to be ready in the event severe weather DOES break out…
“Know where your shelters are located in the event a warning is issued and that you need to seek shelter. Check to make sure you have the supplies in there. Again hopefully that was done during Severe Weather Week in case you have to stay in your shelter for a bit. And then know where you’re going to get your information from. It’s pretty likely that we’re going to have a watch issued later some point today whether it’s a tornado watch or severe thunderstorm watch, it’s pretty likely we’re going to be in a watch at some point. And then if the storms do manage to develop, they’re going to develop very rapidly and they’re going to move very quickly as well, so the amount of warning that you could get today could be somewhat limited depending on where the storms develop and how fast they move, so have a way to get those warnings. Listen to local radio, local tv. Like we said during Severe Weather Week there’s a lot of apps you can get on your phone. Have multiple ways to get those watches and warnings when they come out. Hopefully everybody’s also got a weather radio.”
Ehret adds it’s important to have the necessary things in your safe place…
“We talked about, you know, having helmets in your safe spot so that if you do take a hit from a tornado you can protect your head from all that flying debris. When you go to your shelter make sure you’re wearing shoes or boots or something, some sort of closed toe shoe because if you do take a hit, again, there’s going to be a lot of debris, a lot of nails, glass, things like that laying around. You don’t want to walk out, you try to get out of your shelter bare foot or something like that with all that debris laying around. And then in your shelter, you know, just simple things like water, maybe some snacks in case you’re there for a period of time. Just those sort of things, those little simple things can go a long way if the worse were to happen.”
It appears the most likely timeframe for any severe weather today (Mon.) would be in the early to mid afternoon and into the evening. We’ll closely monitor the situation and pass along any watches or warnings as soon as they are issued.
