Shutterstock
When severe weather is breathing down your neck but it’s late at night, it can be stressful to think about getting a good night’s sleep. If you’re sound asleep, how will you know if a tornado or some similar weather pattern is on its way in? Well, you can sleep easy: today, we’re going over the top ways you can stay safe overnight even when severe weather is blowing in.
While it can be tempting to turn your cellphone off or flip it to “do not disturb,” when there’s the specter of severe weather, you need to leave it on. As long as you’re still getting cell service, it’s important that you’re able to receive notifications of severe weather. After all, tornadoes are much more dangerous at night, for a number of reasons.
Namely, at night, tornadoes can be rain-veiled, and the darkness of the evening, paired with everyone being asleep, can make a night tornado much deadlier than a daytime one. As such, it’s important that you stay prepared to get notifications, as emergency weather services stay vigilant throughout the night to keep communities safe.
Be prepared for any event. Pick up a plastic box that you can secure a lid on. Then, store any items you might need in an emergency in the box. For instance, you’ll want to store things like a flashlight and batteries, a change of clothes, and bottled water. Best practices would include also storing an emergency food supply! MRE (meals ready to eat), for instance, would be an excellent thing to keep packed in with your supplies.
You’ll also want to keep a blanket, pillows, any prescription medicines you need, and phone chargers in the box. When severe weather is in the weather report, you should also stash your valuables, like any cash you keep in the house, in the box. That way, when it’s time to get out, you can just grab the box and go.
If rough weather is in the forecast, crate your pets before you go to sleep that night. That way, if you get the alert that severe weather is on the way, you’ll be ready to grab your pets and get them in the car.
The last thing you want to be doing when a tornado is running up on your house is chasing a cat under the bed to try to get her into her carrier.
