Rhode Island Energy releases hurricane safety guidelines
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Rhode Island Energy released guidelines for customers due to the Atlantic hurricane season starting last month.
The organization warned customers to take necessary precautions and preparations ahead of the season that runs from June 1 to Nov. 30.
These precautions include:
- Creating an easily-accessible emergency kit that includes supplies like water, non-perishable food, batteries, flashlights, a first aid kit, medications, pet supplies and any necessary personal items;
- Developing an emergency plan that includes evacuation routes, meeting points, and contact information, and making sure all family members know its details;
- Protecting property by trimming trees and securing outdoor equipment and furniture;
- Having a source of backup power, like a generator or battery system;
- Staying safe during outages by avoiding downed power lines, minding the fire from candles, never running generators indoors, and turning off main breakers;
- And monitoring outages on the company’s outage map and reporting outages by calling 1-855-743-1102 or visiting the Outage Central webpage.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts a 40 percent chance of their being a near-normal hurricane season, with between 12 and 17 named storms.
Five to nine of those storms could become hurricanes, with one to four being major hurricanes.
The NOAA has a 70 percent confidence in these predictions, the full report of which can be read here.
