With our first taste of sub-zero temperatures coming later this weekend, it’s a good time to review tips and strategies in case your home loses power due to the extreme cold.

Greene County Public Health Director Becky Wolf offers these tips if your home loses power due to extremely cold temperatures.

“You’re going to dress in layers, check on everybody, make sure your carbon monoxide detectors are working, your smoke detectors are working. If you’re using a generator in your home make sure that it’s by a window and there’s some airflow. But don’t use alternative ways of staying warm like turning on a gas stove.”

Wolf points out that when it gets really cold outside young children and the elderly are more susceptible to hypothermia and frostbite.

“The little ones don’t always recognize that they are having issues. The older people, they’re circulation is impaired sometimes and it is decreased from what it was when they were years younger. The heart has to work a little harder and maybe their circulation to their extremities isn’t as plentiful.”

The National Weather Service is predicting 14 below zero wind chills tonight through tomorrow morning for the Raccoon Valley Radio listening area.