Preparedness Over Panic: Choose Caution And Care

Ice does not care how confident we feel behind the wheel. Today we slow down, take a breath, and walk through a simple, steady plan to stay safe during ice and snow: when to stay home, what to pack, and how to look out for people and pets who are most at risk. The goal is not fear; it’s care, preparation, and clear choices that lower the chance of emergencies when power lines ice over and streets turn slick.

We start with the basics that save the most lives: avoid nonessential driving, especially on black ice. I share how hospitals and essential workplaces often arrange safe lodging and why that matters for both staff and community. From there we build practical emergency kits for home and car—water, blankets, nonperishables, first-aid, hand warmers, a battery or crank radio, and reflective gear—plus overlooked items like sand or cat litter for traction and a headlamp to keep both hands free. You’ll hear why charging devices early, keeping the fridge closed during outages, and documenting key numbers on paper can make a chaotic hour manageable.

Care stretches beyond our own walls. Pets need warmth, shelter, and unfrozen water. Unhoused neighbors benefit when we know where warming stations and shelters are and share that info fast. We clear up the myth that “being from the North” makes ice safe to drive on; skill can’t beat physics when tires meet a sheet of glaze. Throughout, I return to one simple mantra: watch and pray—stay alert to changing conditions, check on someone who might be alone, and choose caution over bravado.

If you find this helpful, subscribe, share it with a friend who’s in the storm’s path, and leave a quick review with your best tip for winter preparedness. Your note might be the reminder someone needs to stay safe tonight.

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Chapters

• 2:19 Morning Check-In And Safety Focus
• 2:39 Storm Risks And Basic Precautions
• 3:09 Caring For Pets And The Vulnerable
• 4:49 Emergency Radios And Go-Kits
• 6:05 Car Kits And Staying Off Roads
• 7:16 Myths About Driving On Ice
• 8:09 Platform Purpose And Audience Reminder
• 9:36 Watch And Pray: Final Safety Notes
• 10:43 Closing And Upcoming Nominees

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 1:10

Hello and good morning. Good Saturday morning. I'm Ratina Sworn. I just want to come for a few brief minutes to um say good morning. I hope that all of you are staying safe this weekend and beyond. Um for those who are in the eye of that ice and snowstorm, I would just like for you to please practice much, much caution and be careful and be safe. Um there would be many power outages, but at the same time, even if it's not a power outage, you should still be safe. Um have an emergency kit, and for God's sake, if they say don't drive, try to get out on the road and drive, don't get out and try to drive because very, very dangerous. And um keep your pets, keep your pets uh safe and warm. My heart goes out a great deal for the animals that that I consider I'll say homeless. It's just like the homeless people, they have nowhere to go. So the animals are out and they're cold and freezing, and and I guess when it gets cold and stuff like that, I think about them a lot. You know, the deer and a lot of people say, Well, they're used to that. Well, when it's severe, yeah, there's no mercy, right? So, um, so my prayers just go out for any homeless people. Um there are shelters that you can go to, warming stations. Um, and again, back to the animals. I jump from people to the animals. Um, my heart just goes out for the animals who are out, you know, out there, you know, just outside animals. So cats, you know, I think about them a lot. So I can only send up my prayers for the animals, but back to you as a humans. Be safe. Be very safe. Practice caution. Um, if you're able to watch your news and your power is not out, then please just practice caution. Um I always say have those radios, you know. People laugh sometimes with the the old radios, the little transition, transistant radios. Like sometimes they come in hand though to have those, you know. So if you got one of those, uh that's a good thing to always keep on hand with your emergency kit. And in that emergency kit, you should have a little bit of everything, uh, water, blankets, you know, should you be stranded on the road somewhere, you can have an emergency kit too. It's not gonna be like a warm house, but at least it would be like on the road, you could got some warm blankets and you got um non-perishable food, you know, you got um things like that. I I always like the hand warmers when you put your hands into things and it warms your hands up. Because for me, when it's cold, the first thing that gets cold on me is my hands. My hands get cold and it just makes my whole body cold. So I just say the only thing I can say is practice safe precautions in this weather storm, whether you are at the north or whether you're down as as far as I am in Georgia. So please, please, please, just be safe. That's the main thing. Don't get on the roads if you don't have to. I'm gonna say don't get on the roads. If you work at a place like, say at the hospital, they got it where the ones you live the closest are the ones who are, you know, ask if they want to to work. Um and then just just stay because they got somewhere where for you to stay if you're at the hospital, if you work at the hospital, they got a place for you to where you can, you know, be comfortable. And um and most of the time the power is gonna be on at a place like that because it's needed, because there's a lot of sick people there, of course, you're gonna need their power. So, but for no reason at all, do not get on those roads. Um, because people always like to say, Oh, I'm from up north, I can drive, and you people down here in these Georgia states are down in in southern states, you you know, you know. Uh just because they're from New York, that ice don't care if you're from New York or uh where you're from, you can run up on a sheet of ice and you're gone. I've seen it many, many times. I see people come in the hospital sometimes, emergency situations. I see it all over the news as well. So, okay, so you're from New York or wherever you're from, still be careful. Just still be careful, okay? It doesn't hurt to practice safe and being safe. And that's all this podcast works for. Um, I do have some things coming up, but I want to focus this on the weather. Uh, if you're in the path of the snow and ice storm. Now, for those out there who say, Oh, you're being afraid, you're being scared, you're being I try not to pay those people any attention because I do what I do because I do care. And that's why I'm making this podcast because I do have a huge platform. And for those who are in the eye, you you you might not even be in the eye of this this storm, this ice and snowstorm. You may not even be in the in in the eye of the storm, you may be in another part of the the US or you may be in another country. You may not even be in a a part of it, but I'm speaking of the ones who are under my platform because I do have a huge platform. And so therefore, for those who are in the eye of this the storm, in the eye of it, those are the ones who I speak to. Maybe you got family members that you can um let know to be careful because it's all about being cautious and careful, it's not to scare anybody, but it's I always I'll always say watch comes before prayer. Watch. Watch and pray. So be safe out there, be safe, and again, make sure you got an emergency kit in your car. Always keep an emergency kit in your car. I I I can't stress that enough. Always keep that because you don't know if you're somewhere and you may say you might be coming from God forbid, it's a place that don't even have uh a storm, uh uh ice storm or a snowstorm, and you don't even know, and you're coming from California, and and you get here and you're totally surprised and you're caught off guard and you're stuck in your car, you're stuck out on the road, you know. So again, it's just better to be safe than sorry. It's better to be over prepared than to not be prepared when something happens and then you're looking literally like the deer and headlights. And you know what a deer in headlights look like. You know what that looks like. So just be safe. Be safe. I'm Regina Sworn. Um, my next podcast will be the uh iHeart Radio um sorry, the iHeart Podcast uh nominees, and I'm gonna give you a place where you can go vote and all that kind of stuff like that. But in the meantime, just be safe, because this is what this podcast right here was was for, to uh just to let you not be scared, but to practice safe precautions. Take care, and until the next time, be safe and stay blessed.