Experience Better, Safer Extreme Weather With This Preparedness Checklist

Extreme weather is unpredictable and scary. When it hits, your customers look to you for reassurance that you’re on top of the situation. First and foremost, they’re seeking information on outages and updates on when power will be restored. But, they may also look to you for the location of evacuation centers, emergency services, and distribution centers for water and dry ice. You and your customers can take some of the uncertainty out of the situation and experience better storm seasons by having a plan and being prepared.  Here’s a checklist to help you prepare your customer for extreme weather.

Checklist Items to Help Prepare Your Customers for Extreme Weather

• Educate your customers on the weather risks associated with their area (tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding, blizzards).
• Suggest they create an extreme weather kit including water, food, clothing, first aid supplies, prescriptions, pet food, cash, flashlight, radio, and important documents like insurance, bank accounts, medical records, etc.

• Emphasize the importance of developing a family plan which would include: 

• Identifying the safest room in the home 
• Determining escape routes from the home and establishing a rendezvous point
• Having an out of state family member or friend as a single point of contact for all family members
• Putting a plan in place for pets in case of evacuation
• Promote your alerts and/or notifications to ensure your customers receive important updates and warnings in their channel of choice.
• Recommend they prepare for impending weather by doing a safety check around the outside of the home (clean drains and gutters, bring in outside furniture, etc.).
• Use customer communication channels to share the locations of evacuation centers, distribution centers, and emergency services.