Living in Michigan, you may already know the basics on staying warm during the cold months.
But Michigan safety experts say during a power outage in icy conditions, it's best to stay put.
WCMU's Tina Sawyer talked with Fire Inspector Jacob Steichen from the Traverse City Fire Department about staying safe if you cannot leave during inclement weather.
Jacob started the conversation by explaining how to stay warm after the power goes out.
Editor's note: This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and length. You can listen to this conversation by clicking the LISTEN button above.
Jacob Steichen One real easy way that's often overlooked is covering all the windows and doors with some kind of blanket or heavy fabric. Trying to eliminate that ability for the House to lose heat is is crucial in those first few hours after losing electricity. People with backup generators that are added quite a bit advantage and if they can use those. To use some of the essential items then, that's always a great option. Otherwise, we do see emergency services side. We'll see people trying to get creative using some of their gas appliances indoors and that's when we start to see risks of increased carbon monoxide emergencies and you know, having having open flames inside of the dwelling that typically don't have those going on.
Tina Sawyer So you wouldn't recommend one of those salamanders inside.
JS Right. No, no. And those in particular, they put off a ton of carbon monoxide. So if you're not giving that space an adequate ventilation, you will accumulate carbon dioxide rather quickly.
TS What are some signs of hypothermia? Like what if they don't have any heat source and they can't get out and all the power's out?
JS Yeah, so hypothermia is tricky because when you're immediately get cold, everybody kind of shivers, one of the first signs of hypothermia, is that yeah, it kind of... stopped shivering. So your your body's mechanisms that try to control the heat starts to shut down. If people pay attention to their fingers and their toes, that loss of sensation is going to be the like... a first indicator that you're shunting all your blood to your core and you're actually in a hypothermic state. On the anything that's going to affect their mental status or their normal bodily. Functions like your body tells you when something's abnormal and hypothermia is state where your organs are shunting blood to the core as a survival mechanism.
TS You should put layers on.
Jacob Steicher Yeah, the same as like. Like I mentioned earlier, I'm trying to eliminate the houses ability to lose heat. Same thing with our bodies. The more layers and we're trapping more of our own heat. My first steps personally would be to try to secure my house and close off any of the windows and doors. That I'd be losing heat, but then also wrapping myself up and covering from head to toe. Just trying to fight that.
TS Is it good to put towels under the door?
JS Yeah. Any opening, whether it's a door or window, it's going to lose heat. It's best to kind of trap it off, some kind of heavy garment or blanket.
TS: Well, is there anything else that you'd like to add that I haven't asked a question Jacob?
JS: In in these, especially the winter emergencies like we're seeing in the northern half of the lower, the the biggest hazard other than obviously the trees cracking and that being an obvious hazard, if it strikes you or car or house is the electrical lines and and we get a lot of people that are naturally curious the morning after a weather emergency and they're walking around and looking at trees. And looking at some of the damage we see it on our end, it is incredibly hazardous to be walking around broken trees or house damage, especially if there's any kind of electrical elements involved.
So it's very hard to distinguish between a tree branch and an electrical line, and we treat even on the on the 911 side, trained professionals, we treat every line as if they're energized because the threat.. is real. It seems so simple, and it it is very difficult when you know anxiety is high and the stress of having to go through an emergency. A weather event like this, people want to get out and and try to begin to, you know, get back to normal. But in these first few days afterwards, it's critical to just do what you can to stay put and and stay warm.
