Our team of preparedness professionals has been monitoring current disasters for the last five years and here is a list of common disasters that occur during the month of February:

• Extreme Weather disasters.
• Earthquake disasters.
• Asset Protection disasters.
• Power Outage disasters.
• Shelter in Place disasters.

So, what are we talking about when we mention these general disaster categories?  Let us get more specific about these categories.

Extreme weather disasters include situations such as:

• Brutally, record-setting wintry weather.
• Hurricane force winds.
• Heavy snow in the U.S.'s midsection and in Europe.
• Impassible road travel trapping travelers in their cars.
• Raging seas, winds, and flooding in coastal U.S. states.

Earthquake disasters include situations such as:

• Earthquake jolts (San Francisco) Bay area.
• 4.8 magnitude quake rattles much of northeastern U.S.
• Earthquake shakes LA area.
• 4.1 magnitude earthquake felt in 3 states.
• 6.1 quake in Afghanistan leaves at least 800 dead, 2,500 injured.

Asset Protection disasters such as:

• Scores of victims in ID theft spree.
• Elderly are taken for $28 billion annually.
• Fake sites on internet ready to dupe discount-seeking shoppers.
• Texts from banks are scanners number 1 ruse.
• "She didn't think she could be scammed."  She was wrong!

Power Outages disasters such as:

• Power outage leaves millions in the dark.
• Texas put in dark by outages in deep freeze.
• Minneapolis outage for 9,500 blamed on squirrels!
• 25,000 homes are still without power.
• Staggering power pole loss in Louisiana.

Shelter in Place disasters such as:

• Historic snowfall possible in ... (pick your U.S. state).
• Millions hunker down for winter storm.
• Second wave of storm is set to pack a punch (worse than the first storm).
• Desperation in California as crew struggle to clear roads (after storms).

How do you protect you and your family from these common February disasters?  Most of these February disasters require that you should have a shelter in place plan.  It is the easiest, lowest-cost, and simplest plan to implement.  The second option is to have an evacuation plan in place, but due to the frequency of common (shelter-in-place) February disasters, implementing this evacuation plan can wait until a future month (if you wish).  We encourage you to check out the valuable information on our website to learn how to create these two plans.   We also have tiny courses that you can complete in 15-20 minutes to show you how to create these plans in detail, step-by-step.  As our website says, “Stay safe – be prepared!”  Lives are at stake!