Fredericton — It’s a little late, but your concerned dad wants to give you a few of his best tips and tricks that you should have known to prepare for yesterday’s snowstorm.
If you’d been paying attention to the weather like he was, maybe you would have been ready and not caught with your pants down yet again.
- Cancel all plans the week leading up to the storm. Better safe than sorry.
- Fill up 8 mop buckets full of water so you can flush the toilet if — heaven forbid — the power goes out. (Also: stock up on buckets at the Walmart.)
- Charge your iPad — you never know when you’ll need to take a grainy, unfocussed picture of a grandkid or a dog, and you can’t let the weather impact that.
- Don’t drive anywhere, but if you absolutely must, don’t go more than 10 kilometres per hour AT MOST!
- Text everyone in your contact list something about the poor road conditions. Why should you be the only one in the know?
- Post on Facebook in all caps telling your friends to be safe, and listing particularly “hairy” intersections to avoid.
- Keep the TV (volume cranked) on CTV 24/7 so you don’t miss any crucial info. Cindy Day is gone but they still have the best weather updates, in your fretting father’s opinion.
- Multiply estimated centimetres of snowfall by about 5. The meteorologists always try to downplay it, but your dad can tell you with certainty that it’s going to be very, very bad out there.