April 3, 2025

What We Do During Severe Weather – We Are The Hansons

What We Do During Severe Weather – We Are The Hansons

When the storm rolls in, the Hansons don’t just watch—they document, prepare, and stay connected. In this special episode of We Are The Hansons, we show how our family handles severe weather together with humor, heart, and a little chaos. Whether it’s filming lightning, sending alerts, or simply being amazed by nature, we each play a role. Tune in to see how weather brings out the best in us.

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Hey, everyone, welcome back to We are the hands Ends.

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I want to dive into something that's a big deal

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for our family, severe weather preparedness.

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Living in Missouri, we know.

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All too well that storms can pop up out of nowhere.

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Tornado warnings, flash floods, ice storms, you name it, We've

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dealt with it. So I want to take you through

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what our family does to stay safe, keep the kids calm,

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and make sure we're prepared for anything Mother nature throws

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our way. Spring and summer bring tornado, season, falls sometimes

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has wild temperature swings leading to storms, and winter can

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mean brutal ice storms and heavy snow. Missouri weather keeps

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us on our toes. With so many kids, we can't

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afford to be caught off guard, so we have a

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solid plan in place. First things first, we don't wait

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until bad weather is knocking at our door to start preparing.

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We have a designated storm shelter space, which is our bathroom.

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We take all our stuff that we need, flashlights and

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extra batteries. I usually have my scanner on my phone,

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bottled water, snacks, blankets, and pillows. We always have a

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first aid kit in our bathroom, extra clothes for the

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littler ones. If need be, comfort items like stuffed animals

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and books to keep the kids occupied.

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During all this.

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I always have my cell phone, but not all the

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time do cell phones keep their service during storms, So

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it's if need be, you know, we just go without.

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But we also keep everything fully charged. We can keep

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our phones running as long as possible. The moment those

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tornado sirens blair, our family jumps into action. We have

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a drill so that my younger ones know their job

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and what to do.

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The older kids help gather.

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What we need for the younger ones, and we all

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make our way to the bathroom quickly but homely. My

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husband and I we usually hang out outside under our

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porch that's covered, and we tend to watch the storm

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roll in just to see what's happening. Keep things calm

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and One thing that helps keep the kids from panicking

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is giving them small responsibilities. Whether it's grabbing a flashlight

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or blankets and pillows, or whatever it may be. It

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keeps them focused and less scared. Severe weather can really

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be scary, especially for little kids. We do our best

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to make it feel like it's an adventure rather than

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an emergency. Sometimes we'll turn it into a little bathroom

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camp out, and we'll tell stories, play flashlight games, or

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even sing songs just to keep them occupied. For the

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older kids who understand the seriousness of it all, we're

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honest about what's happening, but also reassure them that we're

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prepared and safe. They know that as long as we

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follow our plan, we will be all right. Half the time,

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the older ones are coming outside to see what's happening

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because they think it's cool too, even though it's not

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really cool, but it is cool to see a storm rollin.

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It's just not cool when the tornado touches down. Once

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the danger has passed, we check and make sure everyone's

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all right and they're not scared anymore, and.

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Get out of the bathroom.

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If the power does go out, we rely on our

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emergency supplies. We have a generator that we can use

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to back up our power if need be, and we

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always have candles and flashlights.

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Our house never goes without them.

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One of the big biggest challenges after a storm is

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dealing with potential damages outside. If there's debris or a

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fallen tree, we assess that situation and make sure it's

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safe before letting the kids go outside if needed, We

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reach out to neighbors or you know, we check on

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them to see if they need help, because in times

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like these, community support is huge and we have enough big,

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strong boys that are willing to jump in and help

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when needed and where needed. Winter weather requires a different

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kind of preparedness. Ice storms in Missouri can be brutal,

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and losing power for days is a real possibility. We

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have done that. We didn't lose it for too many days.

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We've lost it for three days and that's been the most,

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but it's brutal. We make sure to stock up on well.

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At our old house, we had to stock up on firewood,

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and we always make sure we have a lot of

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blankets and extra food, and if we expect power outages,

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we fill the bathtubs with water or buckets to use

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for flushing the toilets and anything that we can cook with.

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We keep bags of charcoal ready so if we need

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we have it to cook on. And the pro paane

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for our flat girl with so many kids, we layer up,

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make a cozy indoor space and try to turn it

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into a fun snow day rather than a stressful experience

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for our kids. Hot chocolate and board games go a

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long way and keeping spirits up. Flash floods are another concern,

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especially in heavy rains. Missouri has a lot of flooding.

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We never drive through flooded roads. All my kids know

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this something we drill into our kids very very well.

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Turn around, don't drown is a big model that we

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live by. If flooding is expected near us, we make

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sure we have an evacuation plan in place, just to

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be safe. Now, I can tell you a story our

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first year here in Missouri. I remember we were coming

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to our new house from Ozark, Missouri, and we were

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driving to our new house and on our way you

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could see it was starting to get dark, like it

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was going to storm. And we're driving along and often

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too the distance, you could see the clouds were starting

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to form a funnel. But then they'd form halfway, and

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then they'd go back up and be a cloud again.

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And then it'd move a little ways and then it'd

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form half funnel and then it'd go back up.

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It was so weird.

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It was almost like the funnels were almost like touching

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the top of the trees and then going back up.

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And I have a few pictures that I'm going to

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share on our Facebook as soon as I can find

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them of some of the funnel clouds that we spotted,

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just weird things. And then we had a storm rolled

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through one time everybody thought there was a tornado. The

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wind picked up and if you were outside, you weren't

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standing there. It was going to blow you away, that's

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how bad the wind was. And we lived down the

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street from a car wash. Needless to say, the car

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wash was to the ground. It was gone. They did

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say that it was not a tornado. It was straight

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winds that took it. But it definitely looked like it

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was a tornado, but they didn't say it was. They

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said it was just straight winds. So they're the experts,

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they know.

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And then.

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We had another storm come in and it was just

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rain and hail, and it had hailed for about I

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would say fifteen twenty minutes maybe, and the hail was

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about the size of a nickel, and it hailed and

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hailed and hailed, and when it stopped, it looked like

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there was snow on the ground. So my husband, Jeremy,

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he walked out onto our deck and he picked one

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of the hailballs up, and needless to say, this was

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the strangest hail we'd ever seen, and it felt like jelly.

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It was almost like what's in baby diapers or Orbie's

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kind of it felt like a jelly. We don't know why.

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We tried to google it and stuff, but it was

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just very, very weird hail. And then the ice storms.

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Every year here in Missouri that we've been here, we

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have had some nasty ice storms. This last year wasn't

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so bad, but all the rest major ice storms to

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the point where the trees looked like glass. But I

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remember our first ice storm here and it was cold

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and we had cut and split a ton of wood. Well,

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we were all sitting in the house because we knew

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it was coming, so we had went and got our

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groceries and everything and got home before it started. Car

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accidents all over in front of our house because we

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lived out in the country and we lived on a

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real sharp corner, and lots of car accidents on that corner.

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We seen so many or people just sliding off going

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into the ditch trying to get around it. And the

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kids the next morning go out and they would sit

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on a trash bag and ski down the driveway on

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a trash bag.

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It was pretty fun for them. But that ice storm

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was pretty rough. And then.

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Five years ago we had a bad ice storm, and

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that ice storm we had no power for several days

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and it was not fun at all.

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I cannot live with all power.

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We lost a ton of food in our freezers because

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of the power outage, and this was before we had

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a generator. We just had to deal with it. It

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was a horrible storm. But in circumstances like that, you

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know your kids see how you react, They're going to

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react the same way. So if you as long as

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you keep it calm and mellow and don't panic, they're

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gonna be all right. Once you panic, they're gonna start

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to panic because they're thinking to theirselves while mom is

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really scared and she's panicking. So we better be really

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scared because something bad is going to happen to us

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and stuff like that. You do not want your kids

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scared during a storm. It makes things ten times worse.

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So stay calm, be patient, make sure you have candles

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and batteries and whatnot. I personally always go to the

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store when I know we got a bad storm coming.

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I'll go to the store either the day before or

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the day that morning. Or that evening whenever, and make

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sure I have batteries and candles and stuff that I

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need to make sure that we're good for the storm,

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especially if there's an ice storm, because I do not

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like driving on bad roads. So if I know there's

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a ice storm or a snowstorm coming, I'm always there

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getting what I need before the weather gets bad. And

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I will not leave this house when the roads are bad.

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I think I could make it somewhere because I would

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be slow and take my time. It's the drivers around

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me that I worry about because they do not like

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slow drivers, so they will zoom past you and you

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could end up in a ditch, or they could hit you,

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or somebody could hit you.

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It's just not worth it.

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It's best to stay home where you know you are

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going to be safe and let them do their thing.

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At the end of the day, our goal is to

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keep our family safe, prepared, and as calm as possible

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during severe weather.

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Having a pl.

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Staying informed, and making sure everyone knows what to do

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makes all the difference. I would love to hear from

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you and how you handle severe weather in your own family.

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Do you have a special routine or traditions, share them

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with us on our social media Facebook We are the Hansens,

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or you can send us an email out We are

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the Hansons Show at gmail dot com and please go

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over and subscribe to our YouTube channel. Thanks for tuning

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in to We Are the Hansens. Stay safe and we'll

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see you next time.