Jennifer Watson - Weathering The Storm

Full Episode Transcript:

Jennifer Watson - Weathering The Storm

Have you ever wished you'd been more prepared in the event of a weather emergency, then get ready? Because this episode is for you. They're expert, social media, influencer, and storm chaser. Jennifer Watson gives you insight information on weather prep and how to protect yourself and your loved ones.

Jennifer also provides helpful and affordable items. You can invest in for your family and loved ones safety in the future.

Jim, I think what we should do first for those people that, have been under a rock and don't know who Jennifer Watson it is. I think, we're going to embarrass her a little bit, have her talk a little bit about herself folks. It's not just Jim and Chris hanging out in their living room talk and like you have a true Emmy-winning meteorologists.

That's here. weather channel a Gora Paul's Jennifer, if you would just please give us a, you're, quickly the people they want to know, who they're talking to, who they're listening to, who they're watching tonight. Oh my God. I love you guys, Chris. You're just amazing, Jim.

So are you guys are the best host ever. I think. so I'm actually a degree meteorologist that's where I got my master's degree in, in my undergrad was geography and I really loved math too. I'm like a science, math nerd. so I almost double majored in geography and math. but I was a meteorologist on camera and local TV for five years, then transitioned to the weather channel.

Where I was a content producer, I actually built the graphics and was one of the main meteorologists for one of the shows. Then I transitioned to social media and I was a social media specialist there for about four and a half years. And I also, and I transitioned from that to the social media manager of a Gore pulse now, but I.

Still do one of their shows, whether gone viral and still on there. So I consult with them and we have our season six of weather gone viral. That's going to be released later on this year. So if you're up late at night or the evening, and you're not sure what to watch and you see where they're going viral on the weather channel, you can click and I'll probably be on one of those episodes.

So I like to geek out a lot. I also have a storm front freak podcast and weather podcasts. It was several other meteorologists where we get to geek out about weather too. So social media and weather are both of my passions, which I love very dearly. I think they fit well together, right? Because we like to watch this stuff.

whether it's tweeting about weather or in fact. When I was in a law, should we start with hurricanes, Jennifer? I was a victim of hurricane Florence. That's one of the reasons why we're all now neighbors in the Atlanta Georgia area. But, I was telling everybody they're like, how do we communicate as like use Twitter?

everybody was wanting to go download another app, but Twitter is, makes it so easy to communicate. But, let's, I, tell us a little bit about what's going on right now. Jennifer, you have a little bit of a, whether, Some weather stuff for us, we can do a weather briefing.

so for those of us, in case you're watching this a little bit later on, this is August 11th, so we're right in the middle to a record breaking hurricane season, which is pretty crazy. we had so many record broken records, broken, all ready, and the peak of the season is not until mid September. And I'm talking about.

The Atlantic hurricane season, we have the Pacific hurricane season as well, but Delana is the one that's been extremely active. we now have what could be a Josephine. I believe in the Atlantic. We have another system that we are watching. That's likely going to develop if that storm develops before August 22nd.

it'll be the earliest that the J named storm form. So we're just on pace for a record breaking season. And it's the first time that Noah, they reissued. Their forecast for hurricanes for this year. It's the first time they've issued up to 25 named storms. They've never done that before. So the thing is we're anticipating a very active year now, does that mean that all these storms are going to make landfall?

No, not necessarily. You can have a very active year and all the storms say out to sea or major hurricanes. Stay out to see, but we are likely going to see some major hurricanes and I believe they're predicting at least three to six liter hurricanes that's category three or higher. So it's scary right now.

And when we're going through COVID-19. No, it's you want to be socially distanced. And the main thing, when it comes to storm preparedness is you can't rely on government or really anything else. Yes. They will be there to support, but when it comes to mass destruction, so many thousands or millions of people impacted, they just can't help everyone at the same time.

It's really, the preparedness is up to you to protect you and your family. First, because it may take days even weeks for, city officials, government officials, to be able to have the manpower to help everyone. So that's the most critical thing. And so I'm a storm chaser as well as, a meteorologist.

So we're going to talk about a couple of different things, different products to keep your family safe, make sure you are prepared. And there's some really cool new ones now, that are awesome. Even if the apocalypse happened, you guys would be okay. Let's talk about this. Product that Jennifer brought to our attention, which I think I almost want to go out and buy one.

And that is the, I don't know if I'm saying it but is it like the low Gaea five and one Y weather station? Indoor outdoor that. Wow. tell us about this, Jennifer. So this is for the weather geek in you. If you have a weather geek, there's always a weather geek in the family somewhere.

what I love about this is when you think about whether there's a lot of, microclimates. And you really see this in the summertime that you're experiencing right now, where you see it raining down the street, but not over you. And you're like, how did that happen? There was something in that era that was more unstable down the streets than where you are that caused that.

And so I'm always fascinated. With what is the temperature drop once it rains, or if I see a friend moving through a know, a friend is going to move through the wind shifts. And so this is like your own personal little weather station. and it's, you can teach your kids about the weather with this as well, but it's truly digital.

You can look at the Dew point temperature and the actual temperature of the different wind speeds and all sorts of other atmospheric conditions. Now this is probably one of the lesser expensive you can have. One that costs several hundreds of dollars, but this is a basic one that I love. And I think does a really good job when it comes to the digital outdoor weather station that you want to have at your house.

So you can monitor the weather and you can even, teach your kids and teach tabs on it. So during the COVID atmosphere, or if you just teach your kids at home, your school, I'm at home, this is great for science, right? You can teach them about science, about the weather. As different fronts smooth through.

So this is one of my favorites and there's also payment plans with this as well on, it's got an almost five star rating, which is really good when it comes to any kind of products. So if you're a geek and you want to pay attention to the weather where it is over your house, Or you want to help teach the weather to your kids.

And this is a perfect product for that. I love that because it's direct for yourself. it's very low it's hyperlocalized, whenever we're, you're watching television and everything, you have to keep it somewhat general. Obviously this is like in your very specific area.

And I also love how you made that about. Teaching your kids, this kind of stuff. it's super interesting and fun as well as opposed to just being some scary thing, because a hurricane is coming or a tornado is coming or like whatever, type of deal. So this is great. I love this stuff.

It's even amazing even here, and it's, it seems like maybe, and maybe that's why the weather channel is located here in Atlanta. You can have. Crazy storms upward Chris lives. And we don't get a dropdown here. And it's like, where did it come from? Right when you're creating a 70 forecast, it can fluctuate between like even 10 to 15 degrees across your viewing area.

So having a seven forecast for just Atlanta. No, it's going to vary, especially once you live in a specific location for five to 10 years, you start to understand, okay, it's always going to be a little bit cooler here or a little bit warmer based on that 70 forecast. like you said, Chris, it's hyper-local, there are micro-scale things that impact the weather locally within towns, within neighborhoods that can make big impacts when it comes to how a storm is impacted by you.

and since we're talking about Atlanta, The Southwest portion of Atlanta, is known as the mini tornado alley in Atlanta because storms tend to produce tornadoes as they go over the Southwest portion of the region, which is fascinating. And it's likely due to a little bit of mountainous terrain down over that, that area.

which is intriguing, but yeah, so weather station is awesome. And I like the full color led display. Obviously, as technology has improved over the past 10, 15 years, you get cooler and cooler things. So this is one of those, it's a decent price. and it's a good system. And so this can be something for your Christmas holiday wishlist that you can put on.

So yeah, remember that, Chris. So I'll be looking for that.

Jennifer, something that I don't know when this started to, we talk about the name storms when it comes to hurricanes, but even now winter storms have now started to gather names. how did that all come about? So that's actually something that's purely created by the weather channel.

So over in Europe, they actually name high and low pressure systems. and each one gets a designated female or male name. So naming storms other than hurricanes is not a new thing on the globally. they do that a lot in Europe. And basically it was something where, one of our winter weather experts, Tom Mizell, who worked at the national weather service in Buffalo.

When you work for over 30 years, he dealt with a lot of like effects snow. And those are very micro scale events where you get these very thin bands of snow that maybe you're only three miles wide, or even a half mile wide and three miles long, very thin. And He actually helped create the boss kit, which is like a way we look at different weather models as a meteorologist, but he wanted, we wanted to create something at when we were at the weather channel.

And this was, other meteorologists trying to figure out how can we raise awareness to really impactful winter storms that could cause a higher threat of, potentially damaging property taking lives. And so naming storms has a threshold kind of like hurricanes in a little bit of a way, but it's something truly unique to the weather channel.

And I think we, the weather channel would love for it to become, governments are, more widespread. but it would take a while, for, in a political setting for something like that to get past. So it's the weather channel's way of making sure that people know that, okay, this particular storm is going to be a big one.

So you need to prepare for it because there's always little, disturbances, low pressure systems that could produce snow, or maybe even a little bit of freezing rain, but it's the big ones that will really impact travel. cities could cause power outages that we name and there's different, reasons why we named certain storms.

So it's all about. Public safety. And it's one of those things. We always tell people don't drive over a flooded road or through a flooded road. Cause you don't know how deep it is and what do you see all the time? People are like, man, whatever, we're going to risk it. And so it's our, we're just trying to save lives, as a meteorologist that's your biggest goal and making sure people are, but as we know, when you're in a storm, power goes out.

It's inevitable. And that's one of the first things they say is that this is going to be the impact of possible power outages throughout this particular area. And I love this next item that you suggested. So talk to us about this portable charger you, recommend. So anchor is one of my favorite brands.

They're very well known for their charters. This has four and a half stars as well. That's 30,000 ratings at almost four and a half stars, which is a lot. And you could charge your phone. I'm not even sure the exact stance of my new iPhone. But probably, at least between seven and eight times, I've never had an issue with it or really lost charge.

I'm really good at charging my devices, in my chargers, but I have. Between four and five portable chargers that I travel with when I go to conferences, they're good for conferences. They're good. Maybe to keep, once everyone starts getting back to work eventually. but it's always good to keep something charged because even in a severe thunderstorm, they can pop up sometimes and it could knock out power and you're like, crap, my phone is about to die and you can charge it.

So these are great. and this one. Yes. It may be a little bit more expensive, closer to $50, but it's worth it. It don't last and it's amazing. And you have multiple different plugins too. So you can plug in multiple devices. It's not just, one device to charge. And so I would say, especially when it comes to major storm systems, like our, the rate show or, big, widespread, severe storms or hurricane where you could be out of power for days to weeks, they need one, if not two.

I would say at least two power supplies for a family. If not more, I think with the, the plug, you could actually put that in to say, example your car charger. If you get the right type of car charger and recharge his batteries so you can continue to have it. Cause yeah, sometimes it may be a while before you get internet back.

But you can still get that cell phone working. So that's definitely something you want to have. And it's critical to let your family know that you're safe. that you have a way to watch the news get information. cause a lot of times when it comes to weather, Twitter is used mostly with updates, cause it's the most timely social channel.

And so I monitor Twitter all the time for different hashtags with storms. So you're a social media expert as well. So how do, how would someone use Twitter? If they're in a storm, how would they know what hashtags to follow all of that stuff? Why, even, I guess someone who barely knows Twitter, maybe doesn't really understand, it has just has an account and doesn't really, know anything.

Oh, is that Twitter, like you said, is a useful tool to be able to communicate things. How would they do that? and that's a great question. So with the recent hurricane SIS, you would want to do hashtag hurricane SIS, hashtag SIS, and then whatever state you're in. So this is something that mostly the national weather service and meteorologists use, but it's G a w X for the state.

So the state abbreviation GA, and then WX is always the abbreviation for weather. So hashtag GAWS and then hashtag Atlanta, and then get more granular where, I'm in Woodstock. So I'd be like hashtag Woodstock. So there's a lot of there's I think at least five other Woodstocks and other States, but you want to get granular and you can follow those hashtags and search them.

And that allows you to see, people will use those hashtags and you can get updates on the different weather going on as wide as the hurricane impacting the Eastern seaboard to specifically your state in your town. And so that's what, whenever there's, a major hurricane, I will do the hashtag of the hurricane and create a whole like Twitter list for that a new column.

And monitor all those tweets and see what areas are being impacted. If I want to know specifically in Georgia, I'll do hashtag GAWS or hashtag Georgia hurricane. and you'll notice what's trending. and usually if it's a land falling hurricane, you can look, at the top 10 trending hashtags on Twitter.

And usually it's one or two, if not three of them. So that's a great question though, Chris, a very good question. That's why, when I was at the weather channel doing social media, we use Twitter over any other social media platform, because you would not post it for you to warning on Facebook with the algorithm where you could see it two days later.

Yeah. And that your town has a tornado warning. We would never do that. if anything, and even when it comes to. different things on Twitter, we timestamp it because you get frequent updates, especially nearing landfall. We will get hourly updates from the national hurricane center on what the progress of the storm and what it's doing.

So things get, old, fast, retired, fast information. Wow. Awesome. Awesome, Intel. Thanks for that. This next kit we're going to talk about, which is the GoPro hero seven. Really? Lets you chase the storm. Am I right? It does. It does. So when I was, the social media specialist on the TV side of the weather channel, we created, seven to eight kits for our live teams to go out with.

So they can actually go live on different social channels. And, we didn't have, so we actually had a much bigger, kind of suitcase kit, but GoPro is one of those things that all storm chasers. and I do not. I'm going to put this out there. I do not recommend chasing storms unless you're a scientist, you're with a scientist, a meteorologist, that you gotta be very careful.

So definitely if you don't know what you're talking about, we'd Realogy, everything don't do that. but let's say you're on the coast and you're like, I ha I'm evacuating, but I want to see what happens or do a time-lapse. You can set up a GoPro, but this is waterproof. This is the entire kit of literally anything you could possibly need for GoPro.

It's a little pricey. it's almost $340, but you can get it for cheaper than that. if anything, get the gate basic GoPro. this is a GoPro, seven zero seven, and I love this. This is also an on grapher bendable, tripod, which you can also get on Amazon as well, but you can just get the basic.

GoPro. And then you would also want the waterproof case that is in that kit. So if you can't afford the whole kit, at least get the waterproof case, but this is something that you can set up outside somewhere. Or if you don't have the waterproof case, you can bend these different. This is why I love this.

tripod because you can bend it, hook it to something, anything, even the edge of the, and pointed outside. So this is one of those things that maybe you want to capture the storm, right? You're maybe in a safe enough location, but you're still gonna get some wild weather or if you're going to go storm chasing or, what, if you're going to go traveling on vacation with your family.

Social distance safely. you can capture some really great family photo from this, my sister who she's a weather enthusiast, but, she doesn't really go storm chasing that much, but she uses her GoPro all the time with her kids capturing images of her kids. And you can do fun like time-lapses and everything.

So it's, multi-purpose this isn't just for weather. you can use this for anything, but. Especially good. If you want to capture different kinds of weather moments. So if you have been, very good this year, Sasha may surprise you with this kit or maybe someone else in your family, maybe you know what, Jim, Chris, you have been amazing this year.

Cheers. I heard something. I think I was more interested in. So when you're, your partner in crime, Brian, isn't around, I have a Jeep. Chris has a truck. You're a meteorologist. So if you need to chase some storms locally, just let us know. We're happy to be your escort. I think, you said we can only case storms if you're with a meteorologist.

So Chris, we just solved that problem. I can podcast from. Yeah. From the chase, like a live podcast while we're doing it, otherwise I'm out. Sorry. I think that would be fun. Oh, seriously. What we would do. I, when I go storm chasing, we do this, the Mount GoPros, probably at least four. so we get all the directions and we go live.

We have a live stream going, the entire time. yeah, we have four in a car, two meteorologists, at least we have a dedicated driver and a dedicated, internet, a tech guru. And also they looked at the map as well. just like on twister, you don't fold the maps, you rule the maps. but they pay attention to the back roads because you go on a lot of dirt roads sometimes to follow storms.

And I think we're going to hit it back toward. Protecting your family. and refocusing on that. I wanted to get the tech here in there too. but it's also really about making sure that you have certain apps on your phones. You get alerts, but you have multiple ways to get information. And the one thing I love is the Midland emergency crank weather AMS on radio.

And I have one of these and it's small. It's perfect. Unfortunately, And left it at my house. I'm not in the main studio right now. And but it's fantastic because you can crank the power and it has a flashlight with it. You can charge your cell phone with this as well. If you don't have one of these and you don't have the battery pack, you can still charge your cell phone with this.

And this is actually perfect for if you have elderly parents. or someone that's hard of hearing that you need to be warned of a storm or need to get alerts. This thing will wake you up. It will. There's no doubt about it. Trust me. It'll wake you up. We had, a tornado warning in Atlanta, last year and around 2:00 AM.

And Jim, you were close to me. I don't know if you've got alerted, woken up by that or not, but I, I. See me got woken up by the sirens, the tornado sirens outside, but you need another alert on your phone, like an app or a weather radio and radio is so important. I know it may be an archaic technology now, but radio would, everything goes out.

Cell phones and everything. Radio is what's there. You can program this to specific counties. you can even program it. So let's say you live in Atlanta, but you have a son, daughter, family, whatever. No, where the hurricane is going to hit. You can change it to their County that they're in. So maybe you can give them updates if you need it, you can keep an eye on your family.

So it's an all-in-one it's crank, so you can make sure it always has power. it's not the flashlight. You can charge your phone on it, and you've got all sorts of differences. And it's got multiple power sources, right? So you can plug it as their USB. You can plug and charge your phone. And it's out of solar.

it's got, it's like a total Swiss army knife of high quality. Like everything you need, if you get in that kind of situation. And not only that, I'm seeing a dog whistle. and what is that about? get your dog in the house or what does that for? I have no. So the dog was still is for when they send out search teams.

So let's say that you're under God forbid, you're under rubble, you're stuck in a place and it's a high enough pitch noise that the dogs will hear it. And the rescue, like they'll hear it first and come to you all. I would have never thought of that. So yeah. So if you have this with you, you're able to yeah.

That's wow. That's a great idea. And this is the dog whistle is even more so obviously with hurricane rescue and cleanup really devastating hurricanes, but also tornadoes too. When you have huge tornado outbreaks and buildings, collapse and everything, you might be stuck somewhere. This is how they're going to.

The find you it's God forbid you're just stuck and buried. So it's literally everything you can think of. And right now with all that's going on, I would say be smart, be safe and just get one of these for you and your family. or if you have parents, aging parents or anything, just so you know that they're safe and they have something.

Yeah. Great idea. Okay. We're going to try to impress the meteorologist with the items that we think would be great. And I was like, you absolutely need a flashlight. Like you, when the power goes out, you need a flashlight. and I've always used mag lights and mag lights were always great, but they're all they always are like, Super heavy and I've never seem to have enough D batteries around or whatever, but it was like there was one item in the list that you, that you put in the carousel that we actually, also put in the characters.

So this isn't one of them, but when I saw this, I was like, what am I doing with a Maglite? This is the flashlight. That I need, because it also does all of these other things and it's also bright as all get out, but yes it is. It's seeing, so it's this bright as the sun. It will literally like, it literally will light up anything.

You can also charge your phone in it as well. so this is, and I put this in because I know the Midland weather radio also has a flashlight. This one is bigger and, but it has another way to charge your phone. And I love how the way that technology's moved over the past 15, 20 years. So we all have cell phones that everyone's thinking about this.

You can never have too many cell phone chargers ever. I don't think so. This is perfect or another source to charge it. But I like it because it's got the lantern and it's not the main focusing light. So the lantern, if God forbid, you're just, you're out of power, but you're safe at home. You can use it and put it in a room and to lighten up the room.

Or if you're searching for someone or something, looking through things at night, and you have to do that. And he's got the main focusing light being that can allow you to look through debris or other things if you need it. And this can be used for anything as well. it can use. For camping trips.

anything you could think of. but it's pretty, it's waterproof, which I love too. And so if you're stuck outside or, in difficult situation, whether it's storm, it's waterproof and it's one of those things that. You can use it for a variety of things. Cause it has five light modes.

So you can do super bright. If you're trying to get someone's attention, Hey, we're over here. Or if you're like, Oh, we're just camping for these really fun with my family and you want to read or stay up late, you can do that as well. And so I think it's, I don't know, it's hiking, camping, weather safety, all of that.

But I, when I think of flashlights, don't think of a basic flashlight anymore. I believe it's 30, 39 bucks. that's bad. The deal. it does all of that stuff for 39 bucks. you pay not that much, less for just a basic flashlight. And I love the fact that it has all the diff it's waterproof and it has different light settings too.

It's not just one size fits all. And it's got like the flashing mode, right? that's pretty cool air right down the side of the road. Yep. And just think you can charge it with a cable, This isn't where I got to go, buy more batteries or my batteries that are in there dead. Now what I do, that's and even I loved like the idea of the lantern.

You even just take it out in the backyard because I'm assuming that top light, you would just turn it off unless you want to, get in touch with the aliens, with the light shining up at this time. Exactly. And one thing to think about is. Which I can't believe it's August we're nearing fall.

We're nearing winter. weather season is it's always good to have a car safety kit as well. just in case you break down or anything else in the middle of the night, you have to change a flat tire. This will be there to protect you. And One of the things my dad, when I left for college, like I have a tool kit in my car with a flashlight with all the basic screwdrivers hammered, anything I could potentially need.

if I got broken down. And so this should definitely be somewhere in a car or in, in your safety. Okay. and this is another, this would be a great gift item. like you said, it's affordable. You could give one to all your family members so that they have something they can keep in the car.

I just love the fact that, the led lights, They last longer as well, as far as bulbs go, the fact that you can just charge this so many ways and it's come back up as a charger for your cell phone. Yeah, that's I never had seen that. she got us once again. I think everyone should have a first aid kit, no matter, whether you have kids or anything else it's just always good to have, and especially in your car, because you can take it anywhere.

And this one is probably the most hardcore. First aid kit. I think you could find there are, less than expensive ones. This is for hardcore emergency. It comes with scissors. It comes with all the gauze. it needs like you sprain an ankle. This is like a hikers pack almost. if you travel a lot in the desert, but let's say you're in a hurricane situation.

And, people are injured, worked for Neato where you're worried about debris, right? Debris is the biggest thing we're worried about when it comes to tornadoes. And one of the biggest killers of tornadoes and even hurricanes, a hurricane is, can be like a category or, in Esq three or even stronger tornado, but it lasts for hours and you've got three branches and pieces of houses and other things flying in the air that can make you.

And so having. Some type of an emergency kit is break this. You will have life. You're never going to need to resupply this. this is there to take care of you, your family, the attorney neighborhood, perhaps, but it's there and there are less expensive ones, but this is one of the ones that I think.

Does an incredible job. The ratings are great and it contains just about everything you could potentially think of. If you were to get minorly injured and you were not able to get to medical care or medical treatment for hours or potentially days, this is what you need. And I would say. If you live in, along the Eastern seaboard or, in tornado alley, one of those regions, we need to have something like this, where it can be there to help you and, help protect you and everything and others, to your point.

yeah, a lot of this is obviously you look at something like this and it's, and there are less expensive, first aid kits, for sure. but. this is an investment that you can, know that you're going to be, you're going to be taken care of in terms of being able to have what you need, not only just for those loved ones that you have in your home, but like you said, there could be others around you that, are close to you.

Whether they're family, where they're friends, neighbors, whatever, that you could also help. So this is a great item. Yeah. And we all know with tornadoes, especially, it's amazing how it can destroy a house. but two houses down there's maybe minor roof damage. it's really just as simple as that.

And so having some kind of first aid kit, Especially with a very active hurricane season. It only takes one major hurricane or hurricane in general to make landfall to be devastating. How are you going to get sure water, Water is so important. It's probably the thing that hurts people. I would say more often than not when it comes to storms or just in general is people forget to hydrate.

And so this is a, this is really pretty cool piece of gear. It really is. And one of the reasons why you want to think about water and hydration is a lot of times when severe weather happens, it's in the summertime. It's in the spring. It is hot. It's humid. You're already losing more water than you'd expect you're out in the elements too.

You're out in the sun. You're not protected. Or you're cleaning up debris searching for people. You're not just relaxing in an air conditioned place. And so it's even more critical for you then to stay hydrated. I'm one of those people, guys, I drink nonstop water all day long. there's no lack of hydration.

my boyfriend Brian's like genius gentlemen. Like I know. but that's how I am, but you want to make sure you have several of these containers and I love how. This one is VPA free. it's a collapsible water container. It's not like it doesn't have to take up a lot of space, but when you know, a storm is going to come, you can fill it up with water.

And this is 5.3 gallons. which is amazing. Also, if you're camping, this can be great for that too hiking. And a lot of families right now are renting RVs. Our resales are through the roof right now, and this is a great option for you to keep just fresh water handy for everyone, nearby. And, but this is water.

We can't survive without water, that long food, a little bit longer, we could survive without food, but water is necessary. And if you're to hydrated, you can. You run the risk of heat stroke, all that stuff really quickly. especially like right now where we're in the heart of summer and it's like the hottest where it is going to be in the Northern hemisphere for many locations.

So isn't it like a gallon per person per day, right? Isn't that what's the math there in terms of paradise. Yeah, I believe it's a gallon of water per person per day. He want to think about that. And I always overdo it with water. I always add extra, always assume you're going to need more when you're thinking of preparedness kits, because you just never know or.

Some neighbor of yours that survived as well. Maybe didn't prepare as well as you did this, instead of sacrificing your own, you're able to provide them water and food. So you got to think about that as, one of those things. so I always try to over-prepare, but at least a gallon of water per person for a day, little kids.

Maybe not quite as much, but you just wanna assume that anyway, because you just never want to run out with water. So this is one of those great things that you have an investment in your collapsible. under 13 bucks guys, it's, if you just get a couple of these, I would say, maybe one per family member and that way you're taking care of for at least five days or so.

A lot of times, cause you've seen a lot of this, Jennifer, what would you say the normal say is it usually be prepared for at least three days? don't just think Oh, in 24 hours, everything's going to be back to normal. Mean what are your thoughts there is, and you brought up earlier in this show, which I think is very important as much as we hope that the government, whether it's our state local or federal government is going to get to us, they've got to wait one for the storm to end.

And then they've got to get everyone together. Cause it's not like they're all like waiting, especially sometimes this stuff comes out of nowhere. what are your thoughts on that? it's you always want to. And, but he, like I had said before, you've got to assume the worst. And I always like to have a week's worth of food, especially if you're not going to evacuate, if it's a voluntary evacuation and you're one, and a lot of people are like this and I get the mindset of people that want to stay with their home, or maybe they can't afford to evacuate as well, because it can be very expensive because.

Once they blocked the roads. You may not be able to return for a couple of weeks. And then you're having to pay for our hotel, finding places to sleep. So I understand that, but people have to just under understand and know there isn't a whole government team for every person, every family. There's just no way.

And a major catastrophic event. I don't care how prepared your government, city, government, country government is that they can help every single person right away. There's just no way. And they're going to focus on the areas that need that are the worst destroyed. they're gonna work on rescue units and saving them, making sure hospitals are okay.

All of that. So if you're healthy, but you're just like, okay, my house was destroyed. You mean the week or even more before you get help. So you just gotta be prepared for that. it's up to you to prepare, the government, city officials and all them we'll try and help out. But when there's a massive event like that, they're trying to do power.

So you're in the rows of trying to do everything they can, but there's just no possible way that they can help everyone at once. And as fast as they want to everyone, they, of course, they want to help everyone as quickly as possible, but there's just no way that can ever really happen. and yeah, you just want to prepare for the worst and that way you're more relaxed and you can even help others that maybe didn't prepare like you did.

Wow. And so we have one last item that you, brought to our attention. I will tell you that not only could we have used it here at my house, but we probably could still use it. And that is. The hurricane socks by new pig. We've had a couple of times where we've had basement leaks from heavy rains, and this would have been perfect to stop the water from going all over the basement and me having to use my wet, dry vac for hours and hours.

Yeah. And so these are amazing. So these are hurricane socks. And so when you think about when you're like, do I wear, what does that do? it's one of those things. So you gotta be careful of low lying areas and especially water damage is one of the biggest things that really, if your home is not destroyed or something like that, if you're near the coastline with a storm surge, like water and flooding causes the most deaths.

I believe other than any other factor when it comes to hurricanes, but also causes probably the most damage as well, due to mold and other things. And so these socks, you can put them along the doorways, or if there's a place that's leaking, they can absorb up to one gallon of water. They are mildew resistant, but they can, they're really good for any kind of emergencies or to avoid some kind of devastating water damage.

They're heavy. It's like a sand bag, but it's like a snake and it's specifically made like a sandbags art, mildew resistant, but this is. Specifically made to help block water, absorb water, so to protect whatever you have and depending on the hurricane or storm or whatever. if it's a river that's flooding, let's say if you live in a flood plain, these are something to invest in as well.

But, you gotta be careful, you gotta be aware of your breast and your flood risk. May not be able to prevent all the flooding, but maybe give you enough time to save furniture or something else, move it. while it absorbs water before water actually rushes in, but this is one of the coolest things. And that you can use to, prevent that kind of damage and even basic flooding too.

And it's only $40 and it's a pack of 12. And so obviously they're not that tall, if there's like a major river flooding situation, you would want sandbags and other things, but they're good to have on hand as we, if it's 12 packs of 40 bucks, why not? It could prevent a ton of, and when you think of mildew and mold and water damage, because it can take a while for them to allow you back into your homes.

That's maybe one of the most frustrating thing about evacuations you evacuate, but then they don't want you back in until they deem it safe. And you can have water even like an inch of water and can create mold and all sorts of problems within a week. Yeah. So this could potentially save a lot of heartache and a lot of pain.

Yeah. Yeah. that's, I wish I had this a couple of years ago. and it's funny. I had. I in my old house, we would have, it was like actually water seeping up through, the cement in our, in our garage. And so I wish like this probably wouldn't have quite helped with that, but we had some flooding issues there too.

So even minor basement flooding, this can help prevent it. you can find someone to help fix the problem. but with $40, Nothing beats it for 12 of those. I think the flashlight beats it by a dollar. I wouldn't have, I'd be like guys, let's read, we're going to spend $80 on each other this season and getting both of those things, it's all about, I don't know how this turned into a holiday thing, but, I'm ready for some eggnog and.

Christmas cookies or something. I don't know, party spirit. Can we put up a Christmas tree or some kind of holiday lights of some sort like, let's make that happen. But yeah, so we're actually, it's not Christmas time because Christmas time would mean the end of hurricane season. both Pacific and Atlantic is November 30th and things looking at the weather patterns right now.

. And if you remember back in: 2005

So you gotta be on alert usually after Halloween, it's less likely to get anything too strong or anything, making landfall still possible that now is the time to prepare guys. It really is. And you want to be prepared year round for all different varieties of severe weather, whether it's winch related, you lose power from that.

there's a flood or tornadoes hurricane. All of that. And a generator is another. Thing. If you have the money to invest in one, definitely do that. there would be the most expensive thing on the list, but at least, if it's really cold, you would be able to stay warm. This has been fun. I hope you've enjoyed it.

I've learned a lot. I thought I knew a lot. I obviously don't know anything. You scold us. Thank you so much. We know something now. I, I really love Jennifer Howe. you took this and you said, you know what? You can't leave it up to others. You have to take it upon yourself to prepare for you and yours.

But I also loved how you tied in the family to all of these things and really about. Helping others around you as well. So it just because you have, it's not just about you, right? And so a lot of these items and a lot of these things, it's if you're prepared, you could help others that may be in need that are nearby neighbors, family, friends.

this is, this was an amazing, An amazing show and you made it that, so thank you so much for joining us. Jennifer, tell us, I know that you do some other live stuff. Where could people, watch you, if they want to catch, learn more about some of the other things you do. So I am right now.

I'm currently the social media manager to Gore posts and I do two live shows within a week. We just had one earlier today. our lunch and learn on Tuesdays at one o'clock Eastern that's in the Gore polls, Facebook groups. Social posts community. and it's exclusively in that Facebook group. And then on Fridays we have social posts weekly at two o'clock Eastern, and that's the live show that's on the Agorapulse Facebook page, YouTube, LinkedIn Periscope.

And we have expert guests on all things, social media and marketing, and we just eat out and have fun in it. It's just a great way to support each other. And then you can catch me on whether going viral. That's going to be released later on this year. If you want to kick out weather with some fun viral weather moments, that'll be on the weather channel coming up.

That's probably the one thing that can go viral. I would say as weather, I don't know about some of these other people, when they say they're going to make you go viral. But whether, yeah, that's definitely. Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty, it's so crazy. And if you want to capture some viral weather moments, you just get the GoPro.

You got it. you're set and ready to go, but yeah, no, this is great. we'll definitely do like a stocking stuffer, winter one with that, Chris, you want to take us out and we don't know when we'll be back, but it will be soon. All right, thanks again, Jennifer. We appreciate it. Thanks everybody.

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