Weather Disasters and How to Prepare for Them

Story and video by Eden Washington and Ahmed Abdul-Malik.  Photos by the National Weather Service.

DEC. 8,2020: On Friday, November 20, 2020, my classmate Eden Washington and I got to listen to National Weather Service Meteorologist, Tim Brice talk about how to prepare for certain weather disasters.   Some of the disasters that we got to cover were lightning storms, hail storms, blizzards, haboobs, typhoons, ice storms, fire weather, extreme heat, and extreme cold.  There are a lot of weather disasters, but we’ll talk about two that I learned from the talk with Tim Brice. 

 The first one is lightning storms or thunderstorms.   If you see one coming or you hear thunder off in the distance, you likely have 10 - 15 minutes to get inside.   While the safest place to be is inside, if you can’t get inside of a building, you can be safe inside a car as well.    You should prepare to stay inside wherever you are until you don’t hear any more thunder.   Even if a thunderstorm cloud leaves, there is a chance that a thunderbolt could strike anything or anyone.   The standard time to wait inside is 20-30 minutes. 

 The best way to be safe or prepare for a typhoon is to go to the basement in your house or if you’re inside an apartment, get to an internal room of the dwelling with no windows.  Other commercial locations such as a hotel usually have a storm shelter should you need to take cover there.  

FUN FACT:  The middle of the typhoon, (the eye) is actually the safest part of the storm because the weather within that 19 - 40 mile radius of the eye is calm with no excessive winds.  The eyewall is where the most damaging winds are, and can reach speeds up to 140 mph.

In conclusion, severe weather can strike almost anytime and as a result, cause catastrophic circumstances.  It is always better to prepare and not need a plan than to need a plan and not have one, and because storms can be as unpredictable as the year 2020, the more you know, the better prepared you can be to weather the most severe storms.  

Ahmed Abdul-Malik is a 6th grade scholar at Friendship Public Charter School Online.