Escapees March-April 2023

it or not, the forecasts don’t lock in the actual weather conditions you’ll experience, despite what your favorite weatherman (or weatherwoman) guarantees! Always be prepared for rapidly changing weather conditions. A few minutes advance notice might literally make the life-or-death difference. Once you arrive at your destination, take a few minutes to set up alerts for your new location. Download an app that offers weather alerts via push noti fi cations to your mobile device and change your alert settings to include your new location. Personally, I use myradarTM as my go-to weather app.

JOSH ROBERTS , a Certi fi ed Emergency Manager®, has more than a decade of experience in responding to major disasters and providing emergency management leadership in the most disaster-prone areas of the country. Floods, fi res, tornadoes, hurricanes and more—Josh has spent a career helping communities and individuals prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies. When he isn’t prepping for the next disaster you can fi nd Josh with his family on their RV adventures, looking for the next campsite and hiking trail. fi re up your weather radar. Turn on the local news if you can. Monitor of fi cial sources on social media. Keep a weather eye to the sky. Pop some popcorn if you want. It’ll make for a thrilling adventure and a good story to tell later around the camp fi re, but take comfort in the fact that you’ve done your pre-planning and you know what to do if you must do it. Chances are there are other campers at your new location who aren’t paying attention and aren’t as prepared as you. Share your knowledge of approaching dangerous weather, give them the informa tion they need to protect themselves, and their friends and families. RVs are some of our most prized posses sions, but always remember things and stuff can be replaced—people can’t. Safe travels, and stay weather aware! movies, the underside of an overpass is not an ideal place to escape the danger. During the really bad storms, like those capable of producing an EF-3 or stronger tornado, there are few places that are completely safe; however, there are always “safer” places than your RV. The lowest-level and most interior part of a sturdy structure can provide you a shelter of last resort if you ever have to evacuate your campsite due to damaging winds. Determine how long it would take for you to get to a safer place if you have to evacuate your campsite. Make sure you leave yourself enough time to get there and hunker down before the dangerous weather arrives. Depending on the level of risk you’re comfortable with, yes, this might even mean hitching up and driving 20 minutes out of harm’s way completely. It’s better to be safe than sorry! As the dangerous weather approaches,

“Chances are there are other campers at your new location who aren’t paying attention…Share your knowledge of approaching dangerous weather…”

Never rely on one warning tool for emergency noti fi cations! There is no single warning tool that works for every person, in every situation, every time. For example, your fancy new weather app may be useless in an area with no cell service. Spend a few bucks on an all-hazards weather radio and set up alerts for your new location. Trust me, the alert tones this little machine provides will make sure you’ll know when bad weather threatens—it’ll wake you up at night (which is another useful feature when dangerous weather strikes overnight). Make sure you regularly replace the batteries in your all-hazards weather radio so any storm-related power outage won’t affect its ability to provide you with warning. Always Have a Plan of Action “Hunkering down” in an RV isn’t the best idea during dangerous winds, in fact, an RV is probably one of the worst places you can be. When you fi rst arrive at your new location, recon the area to identify a sturdy structure as a shelter of last resort. Avoid structures not fully enclosed and those with long span roofs (such as a gym). And, despite what you may have seen on the

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ESCAPEES Magazine March/April 2023