Severe Weather Preparedness Tips from Verizon

March is the start of Tornado Season for many states in the South east, including Georgia. Since the week of March 11-16 is also Flood Safety Preparedness Week in Georgia, now is the perfect time to prepare for all types of severe weather.

With network reliability at our core, Verizon Wireless prepares the year round for natural disasters like tornados or floods. For instance, we’ve built a tornado-proof cave in Kansas to store mobile equipment 60 ft. underground. The COWs (Cells on Wheels) and COLTs (Cells on Light Trucks) and more are kept safely away from the extreme weather and are ready to deploy quickly.

You, too, can take steps to help stay connected during an emergency. Here are some tips from Verizon’s Amar Parikh:

• Store phones, tablets, batteries, chargers and other equipment in a dry, accessible location. Ziploc storage bags will do the trick or look into waterproof phones, cases or other protective accessories.
• Keep your phone and tablets fully charged – in case local power is lost.
• Have additional batteries and car-chargers available for backup power. A nice variety, including solar-powered devices, make it easy to stay powered up.
• Review the Tornado Safety tips from the National Weather Service.
• Maintain a list of emergency numbers – police and fire agencies; power and insurance companies; family, friends and co-workers; etc. – and program them into your phone in advance so you have them ready when needed.
• Use your phone or tablet to photograph and catalog your valuables and other household belongings for possible insurance claims.
• For additional tools and apps you can use to prepare your family, check out Ready.gov.