Although the arrival of winter is expected, its severity can often exceed expectations. Therefore, preparing for the worst is crucial to ensure your safety.
This post highlights CDC recommendations for winter preparations to help you stay safe and healthy, as common hazards in winter include hypothermia, frostbite, car accidents, and extended power outages.
Ensure Your Home Is Winter Ready
Being at home doesn’t necessarily mean you will be safe from the cold unless you make it winter-ready. First, you want to ensure that your heating unit is working fine, so it is best to have it serviced before the cold season begins.
The process of heating your home produces carbon monoxide as a byproduct. In many cases, the amount of carbon monoxide in the air is negligible. However, a malfunction in your heating system can elevate carbon monoxide to dangerous levels. So, ensure that you install a carbon monoxide detector. If you already have one, check if it is still in the proper working order.
Besides the heating system, you will also want to ensure that your home insulation is at its best to keep your heating costs at a minimum. Some places you may need to focus on when checking your home’s insulation include the windows, the door, the arctic, and the basement. If there is any air seeping from these areas, call in an expert to seal the gaps.
Car Safety
If your job requires you to work in an office in the winter, you will need to commute, which exposes you to risky winter driving conditions. If you have lived in a region that snows, you know how difficult it can be to drive in the winter. Luckily, you can do a few things to make driving safer.
Start by replacing your worn-out tires before the winter season because the roads can become very slick during that time. The best tires would be snow or all-weather if that were possible.
“Not even the best tires can assure that your car will have as good traction as it would in ideal conditions. So you will need to be extra cautious while on the road by moving at a much slower speed and increasing your following distance,” says injury lawyer Clive Markland of Roberts Markland LLP.
The severe cold can also affect your car’s performance. For example, it can cause ice buildup in your gas tanks and pipes, which could cause your car to stall. One of the things you can do to keep your car operable in freezing temperatures is to keep your gas tank full to avoid ice buildup in the tank and pipes.
Stock Up With Necessities
Having warm clothes is a must during winter, even when you do not have plans of venturing out, because you can never be sure that your electricity and gas supplies will not get interrupted. So, ensure you are stocked up with warm clothes. Warm clothes are only effective when dry, so you may also want to pack an extra set when traveling just in case one set gets wet for any reason.
Other things you may want to do as a precaution before the cold season gets in full swing are to stock up on include food and over-the-counter drugs and alternative sources of electricity such as a generator or backup batteries.
If you must be out walking, ensure that you have the right clothes and footwear and watch where you step to minimize your chances of slipping and falling.
