At R&R Insurance, we take great pride in our role as advisor and protector of our clients’ most precious assets. We realize you’ve worked hard for everything in your life, and do the best we can to help you safeguard it. To start, Dan Wolgram, Vice President of Personal Lines has a quick suggestion that everyone should do...
We also understand that an unexpected emergency can quickly uproot everything you’ve worked so hard to acquire. With that in mind, we want to help you plan for protecting the people you love, the things you love and the things you need as quickly and easily as possible should disaster strike. If you were sitting in your living room and suddenly heard the tornado siren,what would you do? How can you keep your family and possessions safe in the event of a disaster? Here are a few tips from the NOAA:
- Learn your community’s warning signals and evacuation plans for all types of disasters that could affect your area
- Meet with your family to create a plan. Pick two places to meet: a spot outside your home for an emergency, such as a fire, and a place away from your neighborhood in case you can’t return home. Discuss what you would do if advised to evacuate. Consider under what circumstances you would instantly locate and safeguard the vital information, documents and keepsakes that you’ll need to have access to. Determine what those items should be.
- Implement your plan.
- (1) Post emergency telephone numbers by home phones, or add them to your cell phone contacts
(2) Install safety features in your house, such as smoke detectors and fire extinguishers
(3) Create and safeguard an inventory of your personal property
(4) Have your family learn basic safety measures, such as first aid
(5) Teach children how and when to call 911
(6) Keep disaster supply kits in your home and vehicle. Be sure these kits include access to your insurance documents and contact names for your home, cars and other property. - Practice and maintain your plan. Ask questions to make sure your family remembers meeting places, phone numbers and safety rules. Conduct drills. Test your smoke detectors monthly. Test and recharge your fire extinguisher(s) according to manufacturer’s instructions.
Here are a few tornado safety rules it never hurts to review:
- In a home or building, move to a pre-designated shelter, such as a basement
- If an underground shelter is not available, move to a small interior room or hallway on the lowest floor and get under a sturdy piece of furniture. Put as many walls as possible between you and the outside.
- Stay away from windows.
- Get out of automobiles. Do not try to outrun a tornado in your car; instead, leave it immediately for safe shelter.
- If caught outside or in a vehicle, lie flat in a nearby ditch or depression and cover your head with your hands.
- Be aware of flying debris. Flying debris from tornadoes cause most fatalities and injuries.
Please share your storm stories with us on this post, or on our Facebook Wall!
