SEATTLE — Holiday travel, expected to be in full swing in just about a week, can be particularly expensive and stressful. Making sure to prepare in advance of upcoming travel for weather scenarios that might occur while you’re away is an important step to ensuring that costs and chaos are minimized. Being prepared can help you avoid weather-related incidents such as driving accidents and flooding in the house.
If travel plans are in your near future, whether one day or multiple weeks, Take Winter By Storm— a regional campaign to help people get prepared before bad weather strikes — offers the following tips.
Do a Quick Maintenance Check Around Your Yard
Even with cold weather conditions upon us, your yard still needs to be maintained. Take care of these yard concerns before you hit the road to protect your house and windows:
- Trim tree and shrub branches away from the house and windows. Icy conditions can cause branches to break and damage your home.
- While you’re outside, clear debris off gas meters and away from basement windows and clean out those gutters to allow water to properly drain off the roof.
- Finally, disconnect your garden hose and cover the faucet with insulation to prevent it from freezing.
Protect Your Home from Winter Hazards, Pests and Save Costs Too
A couple preventative steps around the house can go a long way in avoiding major, costly damage while you’re away:
- Insulate exposed water pipes (those located in attics, crawl spaces, basements, and near uninsulated outer walls) to protect them from freezing and bursting.
- Walk around your home and survey your house. Check the foundation for small cracks or openings where pests seeking warmth can tunnel and seal up any possible entrances.
- If you’re traveling for more than a couple of days, turn off your water heater at the circuit breaker to save energy. Make sure to also turn off all holiday lights/decorations to prevent fires.
Take Extra Caution On Roads
The holidays mean significantly more traffic on the roads, often during seasonal weather conditions such as rain, fog, ice and even snow, and more potential pitfalls in transit. These tips will help you stay safe and keep holiday plans on track:
- If possible, plan your trip to avoid driving at night. 90% of a driver’s reaction depends on vision, thus the night driving accident rate is about three times that of daylight driving.
- Double-check to make sure you’ve got jumper cables in your trunk. Cold weather takes its toll on car batteries. An easy jump-start could save you or someone you see on your journey a lot of time and hassle.
- Have your vehicle properly serviced and stock it with items that might be helpful in case of a problem: thick blankets, extra food and water, coats, and a flashlight. A winter storm can leave you spending your holiday stuck in horrendous traffic or worse yet, stranded.
Visit the Take Winter By Storm website, takewinterbystorm.org, for downloadable emergency, house maintenance and winter driving checklists, which offer additional tips for being prepared for whatever Mother Nature throws our way. These tips and more can also be found on the State Farm Learning Center website at learningcenter.statefarm.com.
The Take Winter By Storm campaign is a collaborative, public-private effort spanning Western Washington that includes the City of Seattle, King County, Puget Sound Energy, State Farm, NOAA’s National Weather Service, American Red Cross and Bartell Drugs. These organizations – which represent Washington state’s largest city emergency management offices and energy utilities, as well as weather forecasters, first responders, the leading insurer of homes and automobiles, and local businesses – have joined forces in the major multi-media public awareness campaign to raise community awareness of hazardous weather and encourage behaviors that help protect lives and property.
The Take Winter By Storm website, takewinterbystorm.org, is a one-stop emergency preparedness information hub that includes safety tips and regional resources related to high winds, heavy rain, snow, freezing conditions, power outages, flooding and more.
For more information on the Take Winter by Storm campaign:
- Visit us online: takewinterbystorm.org
- Like us on Facebook: Take Winter By Storm
- Follow us on Twitter: @WinterByStorm, #stormready, #winterprep
- View us on YouTube: Take Winter By Storm
About Take Winter By Storm
The Take Winter By Storm campaign is made possible by the following Partners: Bartell Drugs, City of Seattle, King County, Puget Sound Energy and State Farm; Sponsors: Seattle City Light, Seattle Public Utilities and Snohomish PUD; Community Supporters: City of Bellevue Office of Emergency Management and Pierce County; and Participating Supporters: American Red Cross, City of Seattle Department of Planning & Development, Goodwill, King County Flood District, NOAA/National Weather Service, Seattle Department of Transportation, and Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management.
