COLUMBIA -- Winter weather doesn't just bring along shorter days, it also brings safety concerns.
State troopers with the Missouri Highway Patrol said the best way to stay safe during a winter storm is to stay home.
If you must travel while the temperatures are extremely cold, troopers said you should keep an emergency kit in the trunk of your car that contains non-perishable food, a flashlight, extra batteries and blankets.
“Leave a little extra early," Trooper Gary Gundy said. "People have a tendency to jump in their cars in the garage without a coat or gloves or anything like that. They get out on the road and they have a little trouble. Even though you going from your garage to your car, I don’t know how many times I’ve been out there working an accident, where somebody is freezing because they don’t have a coat and they don’t have gloves.”
Doctors said freezing temperatures cause two main medical concerns: hypothermia and frostbite. Frostbite causes numbness and discoloration of the skin. Hypothermia causes confusion and dizziness.
“When you feel like that you’re having trouble being able to touch your thumb to your little finger, that tells me that you muscles have stopped functioning properly," Boone Convenient Care Dr. John Mruzik said. "You can experience severe shivering for a length of time, mental confusion and severe fatigue. Anytime that you feel like you have been out too long in the cold for too long a period of time, you will feel bad.”
Here are some overall tips for our bitter, cold conditions:
- Wear layered, lightweight clothing. That will keep you warmer than wearing a coat.
- Fire officials said you should never use candles if the power goes out. You should only use flashlights.
- Check on elderly neighbors to make sure they are staying warm.
- Finally, protect your hands with gloves and your head with a hat. Most of your body heat is lost through the top of your head.
Authorities said we should not forget about our pets during cold weather.
Boone County animal control officers said you should keep your pets inside as much as possible and give them some extra food so they create more body heat.
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