Severe weather plan for elderly parents and family

If your parents live across town or in another state, you cannot always be there when a storm hits. A plan made ahead of time gives everyone clear steps when time is short. Ready.gov suggests building it together and practicing it.

Step 1: Pick a shelter spot in every home

Walk through each home in your family and agree on where to go.

• Tornado: a basement, or a small interior room with no windows on the lowest floor. See where to shelter during a tornado.
• Mobile home: it is not safe in a tornado, even when tied down. Choose a nearby sturdy building or shelter, or a place to stay with someone when tornadoes are forecast.
• Flooding: know whether the home is in an area that floods and how to reach higher ground.

Also think about mobility. If a parent uses a wheelchair, walker, or crutches, plan how to keep those with them. If they would need help to leave, plan the ride now. Then practice the plan together.

Step 2: Decide who calls whom

Sit down as a family and talk through:

• How each person will get emergency alerts and warnings
• Where each person will shelter
• How you will reach each other, and how you will reconnect if you are separated
• A meeting place that is familiar and easy to find

Build a support network around an older parent. At least one nearby person should have a spare key, know where the emergency supplies are, and know how to give their medicine or use their medical equipment.

Write the plan down with names, phone numbers, meeting places, and key medical information. After a storm, save phone calls for emergencies and use text messages to check in. Let family know you are okay as soon as you can.

Step 3: Build a basic kit

Ready.gov suggests a kit with:

• Water: one gallon per person per day, for several days
• At least several days of food that won’t spoil, and a manual can opener
• A battery-powered or hand-crank radio, plus a NOAA Weather Radio with a tone alert
• A flashlight, extra batteries, a first aid kit, and a whistle
• A cell phone with chargers and a backup battery

Based on each person’s needs, add:

• Prescription medicines, glasses, and other medical supplies
• Copies of insurance cards, including Medicare and Medicaid cards
• Copies of important documents in a waterproof container or saved electronically
• Cash, and a warm blanket for each person

Keep the kit in one easy-to-grab spot. Replace expired items and review the kit once a year.

Step 4: Plan for medicines and medical devices

Storms can knock out power. If a parent relies on electricity for health:

• Talk with their medical provider about a plan for powered medical devices and medicines that need to stay cold.
• Ask how long each medicine can stay at warmer temperatures.
• Make a list of the items they need that run on electricity, and have backup power such as a portable charger or power bank.
• Check whether their home phone works during a power outage.
• If they get regular treatment at a clinic or hospital, learn that provider’s emergency plan and identify a backup.

If anyone uses a generator, it must stay outdoors, at least 20 feet from windows, doors, and attached garages. Carbon monoxide detectors with battery backup belong on every level of the home.

Step 5: Make sure every home gets warnings

This step matters most when family lives far apart. Wireless Emergency Alerts are free and need no sign-up, but they are broadcast from cell towers to phones in the warned area. Your phone gets alerts for where you are standing, not for where your parents live. Not every warning triggers them, either. Most severe thunderstorm warnings, for example, do not.

For each home, set up at least one way to hear warnings inside:

• NOAA Weather Radio with a tone alert. Receivers with SAME coding can be set to sound only for their county. Some connect to strobe lights or bed shakers for people who are hard of hearing.
• Phone alerts turned on. Older phones may not support emergency alerts, and some need the setting turned on.
• Someone who watches their address. A relative who follows warnings for a parent’s home can call when one is issued.

Do not count on outdoor sirens. They are meant for people outdoors. Read more in how to get tornado warnings.

Kinwarn can alert you when a warning covers a family member’s home.