A few days ago there was a special on one of our local news channels about the weather they’re expecting this winter. According to the weatherman much of the country is going to have a very severe winter, worse than those of recent past years. I remember Snowmageddon of a bit more than a year ago and can’t even imagine things being much more severe than that. Back then you just about needed crescent moon snowshoes just to step out the door, if you could step out the door. Did you see any similar news reports or forecasts for this winter in your area?

A master list of storm names is put together years in advance. The list can be seen on the National Hurricane Center website. The list used to contain only womens names but mens names were added in 1979. Now the names alternate – one female, one male, one female, one male and so on. A list of names is recycled and reused after six years. The only time names are removed from the lists is if the names were associated with extremely deadly, costly or damaging storms. If a name is retired another name replaces it after being chosen by the World Meteorological Organization. Different areas of the world have different lists, so a name can be on several different lists and could have storms with their name in different years. For example the Atlantic list includes the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of Mexico. My name (Valerie) is on the list for the year 2012. The Northern Australia list constantly recycles itself so my name could theoretically be the name of a storm more than once. Is your name on any of the lists?

Well, my little portion of New Jersey got a lot of snow last Sunday – more than one foot! School was closed for two days. Snowmen could be seen in many yards, as could children playing and adults shoveling. I found a webcam called the Snowman Cam, which is located in Gaylord, Michigan. This webcam has won awards because it’s so unique and interesting.

If you don’t know how to prepare yourself and your home for the first 72 hours after a disaster, you should visit 72hours.org. 72 Hours is a website run by the City of San Francisco but offers valuable planning tips that would be useful to anyone.

There are two main areas to the site.  The first area is How To Prepare. This area teaches you to create an emergency plan, and what you’ll need ready and waiting for you to get through the first 72 hours after the disaster strikes. For each of the different topics discussed there are helpful tips included on how to help make your home safer on a day to day basis. The different topics include home safety, children, seniors & the disabled,  pets, utilities, food, water, first aid, go bag, phone, volunteer, training and community. I never realized how helpful it could be to have an out of state emergency contact in case of a natural disaster. The suggestion there that I want to do in our home is to create a “go bag” for all of the members of our home.

The second area of the site is the What To Do If section. This area instructs you on what to do in certain types of potentially disastrous situations.  The different topics included here are earthquake, storm/flooding, terror, contagious disease, transit safety, evacuation, fire, no power, tsunamis, sirens and shelter in place. I found the evacuation tips very helpful.

I found this site to be a very valuable resource that anyone could benefit from visiting. Are you and your home ready if a natural disaster strikes? Would you be able to get through the first 72 hours? Check out 72Hours.org and see if you’re ready. Let me know which idea you found most helpful.

It’s the heart of winter here in New Jersey and we’ve had some really cold weather. I love New Jersey and have always said I won’t leave unless I find the perfect place to move to. Now I’m not sure if a place like this exists, so I’m asking all readers to let me know if they know of a place that meets the standards of what I would consider the perfect place to live. Here they are.
Temperature between 50 and 80 degrees, year round.
It must have no humidity, no freezing, no earthquakes, no tornadoes, no hurricanes, no tsunamis, no blizzards and no monsoons.
I don’t ask for much, do I? LOL. Anyone know of such a place?