Protect Your Home from Cold Weather Storms
You can keep your family and home safe from the cold weather storms with proper tools and pre-winter preparation and maintenance. Homeowners located in cold climate regions, such as the Northeast, the Midwest and mountainous areas, usually experience chilly conditions, blizzards and other types of winter storms. Freezing rain, snow, ice and extreme cold can damage the structure of your home and endanger your safety. Hence, it is imperative to take some precautionary steps and invest in the resources that will help to deal with cold weather storms effectively.
To successfully survive through the winter season, you will have to understand first the different types of cold weather storms and their impact.
Blizzards are winter storms that are often accompanied by strong winds and heavy snow. Accumulation of large amounts of snow can cause considerable damage to your roof and other structures.
Ice storms cover buildings, power lines, trees, vehicles, roads and practically all the other things with ice. Large chunks of ice can fall as the accumulated ice starts to melt and can injure anyone standing or moving below. Ice on your roof melts in the day and re-freezes during the day causing ice dams. Ice dams block water to flow freely in the gutter, causing the water to seep into your home.
Freezing rain or sleet is the combination of rain and snow that can cause slippery conditions. It covers the roads, driveways and sideways with ice as the temperature drops.
Keeping Yourself and Your Family Safe
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) suggests that homeowners should keep the shovels and melting agents, such as rock salt, handy. Deicers such as sand and calcium magnesium oxide improve traction, and you should stock them before the winter season sets in.
FEMA also recommends that you should stock up adequate quantity of fuel to keep your home properly heated and in addition install a backup heating source. Keep these sources in a ventilated area and away from flammable items. Keep a fire extinguisher in your home.
You should also stock up enough food and water as well as extra blankets and warm clothing to get through a brief period of isolation safely. Keep a transistor radio with new batteries to get updated information in the event of a power failure.
Protecting Your Home from Cold Weather Storms
Winterize your home properly to protect it from the damages caused by cold weather storms. Inspect your shutters, siding and other external protective material carefully and ensure that they are firmly secured. Intense winds, moisture and ice from cold weather storms can easily rip off these exterior safety materials, in case they are loose.
Make sure that your gutters are not blocked by debris. Ensure that your walkways to avoid any tripping hazard when covered by snow and ice. Apply weather stripping to your doors and caulk your windows to keep the heat inside your home.
Check your roof for many cracks or missing shingles. Fix the broken sections of your roof immediately. Use roof heating cables to prevent the formation of ice dams on your roofs and in gutters.
Winterize your pipes. Insulate the pipes, particularly those that are located in exposed or unheated parts of your home to make sure they don’t freeze and burst. Find out where your water shut-off valves are located so that you can turn the water supply off if you notice any leakage.
Tree branches that hang over your roof or your parking area can damage your structure and cars as well as injure people. Trim the branches regularly. Remove the sickly ones to ensure that they don’t fall on someone or your home.
By maintaining your home and keeping adequate supplies, you will be ready to face the cold weather storms safely and effectively.
