MIDLAND, Texas — With the potential for an arctic blast making its way to the Permian Basin, there is a chance that the temperature may be dropping to the teens or the single digits in Fahrenheit.
With temperatures that low, it could lead to people needing to stay indoors for longer periods of time or even power outages across the state of Texas.
It is always better to be safe than to be sorry so, if people are going to be stuck inside for a while, just what exactly should people prepare for and what should be prepared for in the home?
First, people should know that this weather can come from seemingly out of nowhere.
“I can't even tell you how many times it's happened where we weren't supposed to expect any snow or freezing ice, but then we wake up in the morning and we have something," Odessa Police Department Corporal Steve LeSueur said. "Sometimes we have freezing fog. I mean now it's always better to plan for the worst.”
Which is why, when the roads are too icy to drive or the power gets knocked out, it’s always better to have the house stocked with everything needed for people to stay inside for a few days.
“Make sure you've got supplies like an emergency kit, you can go on to ready.gov to get a list of that," Midland County Emergency Management Coordinator Justin Bunch said. "It has about a gallon of water for per person per day, three days worth of food, your medicines, food for your dogs or animals. The purpose of that is just in case there is a massive power failure on a large scale, you can sustain yourself long enough for the power company to get up and running or emergency responders to get to you.”
Every person needs something to eat, and no electricity can mean no stoves for cooking. There are some goods, however, that don’t exactly need to be cooked.
“Non perishable stuff and stuff you don't have to cook, because if the power's out and you've got an electric stove, electricity is not going to work," Bunch said. "If you got generators that can help you because maybe you can plug some of the equipment out to a generator and run some of your stuff that you want to cook.”
Grown adults may know what to do in this situation, but what about the kids who aren’t used to being shut inside?
Sometimes, the kids just need to be kept occupied.
“The biggest thing I've dealt with when we had our power outages in our house in the past is I just kept the kids occupied," Bunch said. "I made sure we had board games and stuff like that, you know we sit down at family time around our little candles in our little heaters but other than that as long as you just keep them occupied and make sure they're not scared.”
If, for some reason, people do need to go out on the roads in poor conditions, take time and have something ready to go just in case the car breaks down on the road.
“Bring extra coats, jackets, bring plenty of water [and] food if necessary," LeSueur said. "Just things like that you never think of.”
Other things to remember are to drip faucets to keep pipes from bursting and to keep animals inside.