Central Texas, prepare your home, your car, your pantry for this week's winter weather

Nicole Villalpando, Austin American-Statesman
·4 min read

We're bracing for freezing temperatures and a wintery mix in the next few days, beginning Wednesday and lasting through Friday.

While we expect this just to be at most a three-day event, it's recommended to prepare for a week without power and water in case those systems fail.

Here's what you can do right now to prepare.

Stock up on essentials

As we learned from last winter, we can't always count on our electric appliances, including ovens and refrigerators. We also can't count on our ability to get to a store or have power and heat. Here are some essentials to have ready:

Multiple flashlights and batteries. Avoid using candles, which are a fire hazard.

Bottled water. Keep one gallon of bottled water per person per day for drinking. Plan for seven days. Also have extra bottles for washing dishes and bathing if you can.

Nonperishable food and a manual can opener. Food options include canned meats, soups, vegetables and fruits; peanut and other nut butters; and pantry snacks such as granola bars and crackers.

First aid kit with bandages, alcohol wipes, antibiotic cream, burn cream, ankle wraps, thermometer, fever reducer/pain reliever, and an antihistamine like Benadryl.

More: 5 things to know about the winter storm and extended freeze coming to Austin this week

Medications and medical supplies. Have at least a week's worth of medication on-hand at all times. If your medication has to be kept cold, have freezer packs and a cooler ready to go.

Warm clothing and blankets. Layers are your friends to keep warm.

Firewood, fire starters and lighters. If you have a fireplace, that can be really helpful in staying warm.

Diapers and wipes. Have at least a week's worth.

Pet food and supplies.

Sand, salt or cat litter. Add traction to icy sidewalks and driveways.

Battery-powered or hand-cranked weather radio.

Portable cellphone chargers.

Cash. If power is widely out, but roads are passible, ATMS won't be working.

Medical equipment. Have a plan for how to power any essential medical equipment you use at home. This might include a battery backup or backup generator.

More: Skin dry and cracked? Could be our chaotic Central Texas winter weather

Get your car ready

Once the wintry mix starts, avoid travel on roads, even if you've lived in a wintry place before. Our roads won't be ready for you.

If you have an emergency and must travel, make sure you do these things before the storm hits:

Catch up on maintenance. Are your tires and brakes in good shape? Try to keep your gas tank full.

Prepare an emergency kit in your car. It should include:

  • Jumper cables.

  • Sand or cat litter.

  • A flashlight with extra batteries.

  • Warm clothes and blankets.

  • Bottled water and nonperishable snacks.

  • A scraper to scrape off ice from the car.

Get your house winter ready

Wrap pipes with cloth or pipe sleeves.

Drip your faucets to keep water flowing through pipes.

Know where your water shutoff valve is and have the tool to turn it.

Fill bathtubs with water. If the water goes out, you'll have water to boil to use for cooking with or to use to flush a toilet. This won't be like last year when there was snow to melt for toilets.

Bring in any plants that are not meant for freezing temperatures or cover them with an old blanket.

Know where a copy of your home owner's insurance is.

Texas power plants before the freeze: ERCOT gives power plants good marks for winter weather preparation despite some laggards

Get a generator ready if you have one. Do you have gasoline ready for it? Never use it inside an enclosed space!

Seal up drafty windows and doors. Tape plastic around them or use towels to block the draft.

Get your fireplace ready. Clear off any used ash. Know how to open the flue. Make sure nothing is within 2 feet of the fireplace and that you have your screen and tools, fire logs or logs, starters and lighter ready to go.

Change the batteries in the smoke detector and carbon monoxide detectors. If you didn’t do it with the time change, what are you waiting for?

Have a communication plan

Plug in all of your cellphones, computers and backup batteries to have them fully charged.

Who do you need to check on? Who will check on you? Print or write out necessary phone numbers.

Be ready to leave

If it's not safe to be in your house because of pipes breaking or a lack of heat, know where you will go. Keep up to date with where emergency shelters are being set up. Call 512-305-4233 or 311 or go to austintexas.gov.

Also, have essential documents, such as insurance plans, Social Security card, driver's license, passport and birth certificates, in one waterproof, fireproof place that can be grabbed in an emergency.

More resources

Texas A&M has a great severe weather home page: tamu.edu/emergency/procedures/severeWeather.html.

Ready.gov has a whole preparedness plan as well as more disaster resources.

The National Weather Service also offers guides at weather.gov/safety/winter.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin freeze 2022: How to prepare for winter storm