Published: October 25, 2009 10:43 pm         

Honigsberg urges residents to ready for severe winter weather

Mike Honigsberg says it’s not a good idea for people to rush out to the store at the last minute before an ice storm hits.

Instead, he suggests keeping a five-day supply of food in the house at all times during the winter months.

That’s one of the things Enidites can do to prepare for winter weather this year, as that time will be here soon.

“During an ice storm event, people should be able to shelter in place and survive without any problem for at least five days,” says Honigsberg, Enid and Garfield County Emergency Manage-ment director.

Stocking up on non-perishable foods such as canned goods are ideal in that sense.

Another good thing to do to prepare is to know places where you can go to get warm. If the heat goes out in your home, you should know of other places you can go to, whether it be neighbors or nearby businesses, where heat is readily available.

Some residents may decide to head south before an ice storm hits. That’s OK, Honigsberg said, on one condition.

“Just don’t do it during the storm,” he said.



Tools of the trade



Honigsberg said he is trying out some new methods for getting out the word about approaching winter weather.

Some businesses in Enid have viaRadio, which sounds an alarm whenever stormy weather is about to strike and flashes text across its screen, describing the weather advisory.

Honigsberg puts together those messages, but he hopes he’ll soon have less work to do on those. Right now he puts the messages together manually, but he hopes to soon have a way to have them automatically sent to the viaRadios whenever bad weather hits.

One of the things that worked last year before an ice event was Honigsberg sent out a text warning a few days in advance before the storm hit. He said the method worked as he had hoped.

“The storm wasn’t as bad (as we thought it would be),” he said, “but traffic wasn’t as bad either.”

A new capability Honigsberg is looking into is one that would send an automatic message to a resident’s cell phone, pager or home phone. Residents would be able to subscribe to the service for only about $1 a year.

Several major cities in Oklahoma already use the system, Honigsberg said.

Honigsberg also is working on enhancing his Web site, www.gcem.org, to provide more up-to-date information. He hopes that will all be done within the month.



Other winter weather tips



Cimarron Valley Chapter of American Red Cross suggests putting together preparedness kits before winter weather moves in.

Items in the kit should include:

• One gallon of water for three days each.

• Three-day supply of food (Honigsberg suggests five).

• Week’s supply of necessary medications.

• Battery-powered weather radio and extra batteries.

• First aid supplies.

• Important documents such as IDs, passports, birth certificates and insurance policies.

• List of emergency phone numbers.

• City map.

• Extra money.

• Extra sets of warm clothing.

• Supply of personal hygiene products.

• Pet supplies, if you have one.

• Tools.

Other tips are available at www.enid-redcross.org.



What to expect



Any forecast over three days in advance is an educated guess, Honigsberg said, so it’s difficult to predict exactly what’s going to happen this winter. But he was able to offer a few conjectures.

“I think we’ll have a fairly normal winter,” he said.

Honigsberg said he’s leaning toward a more wet than more dry winter with several ice events possible. That means those preparedness kits might come in handy.

“(Residents) need to get ready for winter now,” Honigsberg said.