Cold weather preparedness

Never use charcoal, gas, or propane heaters indoors, or run a car in a closed garage. Carbon monoxide is odorless and colorless and can cause illness or death. Visit the page Preventing poisoning from carbon monoxide for more resources, including in-language graphics.

Keep refrigerator and freezer doors closed. Throw out perishable food in your refrigerator after 4 hours. During long outages, move perishable food to a cooler, and keep it outside in the shade in cold weather. Throw out any food above 40° in coolers and freezers.

Keep warm by wearing multiple layers, closing curtains or blinds, and staying together in one room with the doors closed to capture body heat.

Find more information, including in-language resources, at: What to do when the power goes out.

This includes water, non-perishable food, back-up batteries, and medications. Make sure you have supplies for children, people with special medical needs like dialysis or oxygen, and pets. Know where your supplies are if you need to leave home quickly.

Make a transportation plan to pick up children, older family and friends, and people with special needs in an emergency. Choose a meeting place if you need to evacuate your home, and know the route to get there from home, work, and school or daycare.

Write down or memorize the phone numbers, emails, and social media usernames of all your family members. Talk about how you’ll contact each other if there is a disaster and cell service or wi-fi isn’t working.

It can hide deep holes, strong currents, and sharp objects.

Don’t touch flood water and always wash hands before eating. Flood water has sewage and harmful chemicals that can make you sick. Make sure to wash children’s hands and wipe down pets if they have been outside around flood water!

Protect yourself when cleaning after a flood. Wear rubber gloves, rubber boots, an N95 mask, goggles, and long-sleeved shirts and pants.

Check your home's flood risk, sign up for alerts, and learn about flood insurance discounts at KingCountyFloodControl.org, or call 800-945-9263 (language interpretation is available). You can also find more resources about recovering after a flood (in-language resources available).

Learn to recognize symptoms of hypothermia, when exposure to cold temperatures make your body’s temperature drop dangerously low. Symptoms include uncontrolled shivering, slow or unclear speech, and feeling extremely tired. Very young and elderly people are at higher risk.

Prevent hypothermia by wearing multiple layers, seeking shelter, changing out of wet clothing, avoiding contact with metals, and protecting yourself from the wind. Heart disease, alcohol and drugs, exhaustion, and hunger can increase risk.

Treat hypothermia by bringing the person indoors or to a dry place protected from the wind. Remove wet clothing and cover the person with dry blankets. Put them next to a warm (not hot) heater, and/or lie under the covers next to the person to transfer your own body heat. Wrap an infant inside your own clothing against your skin.

Avoid driving or walking outside and move indoors during a windstorm.

Stay away from windows and doors to avoid flying branches, falling trees, and broken glass.

Move to a small interior room, like a bathroom, closet or hallway. If you can, go to a basement or ground floor. For more protection, get under a sturdy table or desk.