Gather all your winter clothes, check to ensure they still fit the children. Don’t forget gloves, hats, scarves, snow boots and thermal underwear.

Have all vehicles winterized.

Get your heating unit an annual check up. If you use propane or natural gas as a heating source, ensure you fuel supply is adequate and properly working.

Prepare your property. Have loose shingles, gutters and walkways secured so they don’t buckle under the weight of the heavy snow.

Gather necessary phone numbers for snow removal, plumber (in the event of freezing pipes), electric company (for power outages), etc.

If you live in the Valley, start sorting your valubles and storing them some place safer than your property. Now. Not when we get the evacuation warning. Get flood insurance. Now. It takes 30 days for new insurance to kick in. Find your evacuation routes. Now. Don’t rely on neighbours knowing how to get out and so you’ll just follow them. Speaking of neighbours, if you know any elderly or disabled neighbours, check with them to make sure they have a plan to make their way out; if not, offer your assistance! Make sure your car is serviced (oil change, radiator fluid filled, etc.) and that you keep your gas tank above 1/2 full from now until April (our flood season.) Make your emergency kit–include cash!! Sign up for Reverse 911 notification. Any ?’s: call your city gov’t.

If you don’t live in the Valley, make sure you have your emergency kit stocked for 3 days, incase there is no utility service–include cash! Offer your services to a friend. Sign up to volunteer–fill sandbags or deliver them to the elderly. If these command posts are near your area and you have means of cooking, have a little extra on hand to take treats to the sandbaggers, fire dept., Emergency services. These men and women may be away from their families for few days–their families would really be grateful for any kindness their loved one would be provided. Work out an agreement with elderly neighbours about running errands–aka grocery–you might have to go to a few stores to get the lists tackled. Open your home to store valubles or to someone who could potentially need shelter for a few days. Talk to your church or community groups that have halls, and ask if they would consider opening up halls as temporary shelters for evacuees.

This is a great post today–thank you T.L. & Ivory for caring for us all enough to write post!