Black Friday Winter Preparedness Gift Ideas from FLASH

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As “Black Friday” approaches, the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes (FLASH)® suggests that this year, especially in the aftermath of Super Storm Sandy, families consider shopping for gifts of winter safety.

According to FLASH, there’s no better gift than one that offers your loved ones safety and protection and even has the potential to save their lives. For that reason FLASH, the country’s leading consumer advocate for strengthening homes and safeguarding families from natural and manmade disasters, developed a comprehensive list of winter-weather preparedness gift-giving ideas that can protect friends’ and families’ homes and ensure their safety.

Severe weather like Sandy has redefined this year’s must-have gift list. Traditional gifts and gadgets are taking a backseat to products like weather radios, power generators and simple things like hand-crank cell phone chargers.

Consider the following winter weather-smart gift ideas in the areas of Comfort and Security and Home Mitigation:

Comfort & Security

  •  AM/FM radios w/extra batteries
  • Automobile power inverters
  • Blankets
  • Carbon monoxide detectors
  • First-aid kits
  • Hand-crank powered appliances such as cell phone chargers, power supplies, radios and weather radio
  • LED flash lights w/extra batteries
  • NOAA weather radios w/single-area message encoding (SAME)
  • Power generators
    • Portable gasoline-powered generators
    • Permanent LP or natural gas standby generators
    • Solar-powered backpack to charge laptops, tablets, music players and other portable devices

 Home Mitigation

  •  Attic insulation
  • Insulated doors
  • Storm doors
  • Portable generators
  • Standby generators
  • Gift certificates for professional home inspections
  • Gift certificates for professional winterization services
  • Insulation for hose bibs, exposed plumbing, pool equipment
  • Weather stripping
  • Replacement windows

For a complete list of tips on how to stay safe and comfortable during power outages, click here. For comprehensive disaster safety and home mitigation information on weather of all kinds, visit www.flash.org. And to enter the 2012 Great Hurricane Blowout Kohler/FLASH standby generator contest, visit www.greathurricaneblowout.org before November 30.

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