Firefighter teaching fire safety at school

Fire Department

5th Grade

What I learned today:

First Visit –

  • We learned about weather emergencies and natural disasters.
  • We got some bad news: Natural disasters will occur and we cannot always predict them.
  • We also got some good news: We can prepare for them.
  • We discussed many types of weather emergencies such as tornadoes, forest fires, hurricanes, earthquakes, blizzards, storms and flooding.
  • We learned about how to know when a weather emergency might be coming.
  • We learned about severe weather watches. These tell us severe weather is possible, and to start planning.
  • Severe weather warnings tell us severe weather will or is occurring and you need to seek shelter or react in some way.
  • We can receive severe weather watches and warnings from TV, radio, computer and by text message.
  • We learned that severe weather can produce wind, downed trees, downed wires, rain, flooding, dangerous road conditions, loss of power and many other problems.
  • We spoke in-depth on the correct actions to take for different severe weather effects.
  • Wind—we learned to stay inside away from windows.
  • Downed trees—stay away as they may be tangled with live power lines.
  • Power lines down—stay away and treat all wires down as live wires.
  • Flooding—stay out of overflowing creeks and deep pooling water on roads. Floodwater is often contaminated.
  • We learned about having a family disaster plan and how to make one.

Ready.gov is a fantastic site for everyone to prepare and learn about weather emergencies and natural disasters.