Traveling During Severe Weather

With many families poised for spring and summer travel, the Illinois Emergency Management Agency and Office of Homeland Security (IEMA-OHS) is helping get travelers ready for hurricane and severe weather season by enhanced preparedness efforts including hurricane preparedness.

“Our State Climatologist and National Weather Service Meteorologists have all forecasted an increasing number of intense natural disasters like hurricanes and severe weather,” said IEMA-OHS Director Alicia Tate-Nadeau. “So before your big family vacation, find the time to prepare for severe weather as it could save your life.”

With hurricane season spanning from June 1 to Nov. 30, there are several practical ways that Illinoisans can better prepare and plan while traveling. Depending on your travel destinations, the following steps are helpful to consider:

Update emergency plans and enhance your preparedness kit supplies; Subscribe to your vacation destinations emergency alerts; Familiarize yourself with multiple evacuation zones for all travel locations; Keep a cell phone charges for weather warnings and localized emergency alerts; Know your hurricane risks including inland locations; Share your location with family members so they know where you are; And frequently check the weather, news, and traffic going to, and at your destinations

Everyone depends on their cellphones for sending and receiving information. But during an emergency, cell phones have the ability to receive location based timely tornado warnings or severe flash flood warnings from the National Weather Service.

Many of these recommendations are helpful for all disasters and plans can be modified in cases of flooding, tornadoes, fires, or other emergencies.