Thirty days of preparedness posts, sorted into one checklist by what it costs you: the free things to do this week, the inexpensive ones this month, and the bigger ones this season.
Kids fill in the gaps themselves, and what they invent is usually worse than the truth. How to give each child a real job in the plan, and what normal looks like afterward.
The first help in a mountain town is usually somebody within walking distance. How to build a neighbor list before you need it, what a useful check-in actually asks, and where CERT training fits.
Ice storms here take the power out for a day, not an hour. How to pick one room to heat, keep carbon monoxide out of the house, protect the pipes, and decide when to leave.
Four-wheel drive does not help you stop. What actually works for driving on icy mountain roads: winter tires, a DriveNC check before you go, and knowing when road brine has quit working.
Here is how to protect your pipes before the first freeze, heat safely without carbon monoxide risk, and read the National Weather Service terms that decide how bad a storm will be.
A wildfire evacuation may give you fifteen minutes. Here is CAL FIRE’s Six P’s checklist, what a fire bag needs that a flood bag does not, and the two alert systems to join.
Three measured zones around a house decide whether a windblown ember becomes a scorch mark or a house fire. Here is what belongs in each one, and why a whole road should work them together.
Wildfire risk in western North Carolina runs highest in spring and fall, not summer. What the 4 p.m. burning law requires, and where to check fire danger before you light anything.
