National Geographic Extreme Weather Survival Guide: Understand, Prepare, Survive, Recover
384
National Geographic Extreme Weather Survival Guide: Understand, Prepare, Survive, Recover
384Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781426213779 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Disney Press |
| Publication date: | 10/21/2014 |
| Sold by: | DISNEY PUBLISHING WORLDWIDE -EBKS |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 384 |
| File size: | 13 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
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A hurricane is coming. Do you have a plan? Should you leave home or stay put? Do you know how to access local alerts? At home, are you better off upstairs or downstairs? Is your yard in order? Where would you go if you had to leave home? Do you have what you need to make it through a power outage? What about family members? What about pets? Perhaps you’ve faced such an emergency. Were you ready? Did you even know what to do to be sure you were ready? Many face those questions in the heat of the moment, but it’s best to think the answers through carefully, long before the storm begins. This book tells you how. It will help you understand, prepare, survive, and recover.
We seem to be getting slammed harder and more frequently by extreme weather—with record-breaking temperatures, storm intensities, property destruction, and even fatalities. The news is filled with catastrophic events—Hurricane Sandy brought epic destruction to New York and New Jersey in 2012; monster Typhoon Haiyan wrought havoc in the Philippines in 2013; and a dip in the polar vortex in 2014 made Chicago colder than the South Pole’s summer temperature. In many places, summers are hotter, winters are colder, and new weather records seem to be set all the time.
What’s causing all this destructive phenomena? Why do they appear to be happening more frequently than they used to? Is climate change to blame? If so, how and in what instances? We’ll discover the answers to these questions and more in the pages that follow. What seems to be certain: Abnormal is the new normal—we need to learn to expect the unexpected.
The general mantra for an emergency is to plan and prepare in order to survive and recover. In fact, everyone can take three actions to remain safe during any extreme weather event. The first is to get informed. The second is to make an emergency kit. And the third is to have a plan.
The information in this book goes a long way toward helping you achieve these three steps. Here, you’ll learn how to prepare, survive, and recover for and from just about every kind of extreme weather event—from driving in blizzards and whiteouts to preparing to take shelter from a tornado; from beating the heat to battening down for a hurricane; from building a seawall against floods to following nature’s signals to determine if a storm has passed.
Steps to Safety
First, you and your family need to agree on a basic action plan. An agreed-upon plan will keep you safe in times of trouble. It will also give you peace of mind knowing you can lean on it to help yourself or others in need. Set up a meeting with all members of your household. Talk about how best to prepare and respond to emergency situations. Alert everyone to the types of problems that may arise. Identify tasks for each member of the household, and discuss how you can work together when an emergency arises.
For example, if there is a flood, who’s in charge of moving furniture to a higher, drier place? Turning off the power? Or getting the sump pump going? If a tornado is reported, who’s responsible for making sure everyone is accounted for? What about pets—who is minding them? If a heat wave hits, can elderly family members care for themselves? If not, who will look in on them? Assigning responsibilities such as these ahead of time makes for a well-organized, swift, and safe response to disasters.
Also, it’s important to plan what to do in case you are separated during an emergency. Meeting places need to be chosen—one nearby in case of, say, a fire. And one in a different area in case you need to evacuate your home.
It’s also wise as part of your emergency plan to have emergency contacts saved on your mobile phones and identified as ICE, or “in case of emergency.” Emergency responders are trained to look for these labels on mobile phones.
More tactically, agree on an evacuation plan, and make sure everyone understands what to do. This means knowing what route to take and how to get to your agreed-upon meeting place. Have different options in case you cannot leave in a vehicle, and choose different locations to meet. If you know of a local shelter, you may want to identify that. Then practice your evacuation procedures twice a year. Don’t wait. Start planning and preparing—now.
Don’t forget that technology can be extremely helpful during emergency situations. There are apps that provide weather updates directly to your smartphone or tablet. You can also text to find local shelters. You can use websites (such as the American Red Cross Safe and Well website) to let your family know that you are okay.
Good solid preparation will allow you to maintain control over your emotions when a disaster hits. Staying calm and focused are critical practices that every emergency responder knows can make the difference between life and death. Knowing that you need to stop, drop, and roll if you catch fire, or that you should never take refuge under an overpass during a tornado—these are lifesaving lessons, and having them at hand to follow will muster courage and emotional control when most needed.
Of course, you cannot experience the extreme weather event until it happens, but you can prepare for it by doing drills, talking through plans, and keeping well informed. And you can take steps to mitigate dangers. Many people, for example, don’t check or change their smoke and fire alarms frequently enough—every month is recommended. Nor do people realize that hard objects left loose outside—such as outdoor furniture—can become flying weapons during a storm. Little facts like these could save lives.
With more extreme weather events occurring now than in the past, we have to brace for a new kind of survival. Learning how to prepare, survive, and recover from extreme weather events is—like it or not—an integral part of life in the 21st century.
Table of Contents
How to Use this Book 6
Introduction 8
Part 1 Wet 14
Chapter 1 Thunderstorms 18
Chapter 2 Floods 50
Chapter 3 Hurricanes 86
Chapter 4 Tornadoes 122
Part 2 Dry 154
Chapter 5 Drought 158
Chapter 6 Wildfires 190
Part 3 Hot 222
Chapter 7 Rising Temperatures 226
Chapter 8 Heat Waves 260
Part 4 Cold 294
Chapter 9 Cold Waves 298
Chapter 10 Blizzards 334
Doing Your Part 364
Resources and Organizations 368
Illustrations Credits 372
Index 374