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Although blessed with a white holiday weekend, residents in the Northeast may have more of a winter wonderland than they can handle. People throughout the affected states were urged to stay indoors as a normally 30-minute drive took a minimum of two hours. The winter weather caused airports to close for over 9 hours and trains to breakdown or suspend their services. The blizzard-like conditions spanned from the Carolinas up to Maine.

From catastrophic earthquakes, wildfires, biblical-like flooding, the hottest recorded summer temperatures to the snowiest winters, extreme weather and natural disasters are often one of the top stories on the evening news. However, one of the most common trends seen is unpreparedness on the affected public’s behalf.

FEMA states that winter flooding is particularly dangerous in the states of Arizona, California and Nevada because of the recent wildfires and the rainy season that follows. Although flooding can happen during any time of the year, homeowners should know their risk in relation to severe weather, including flooding, that can occur during cold weather months.

With all the snowy weather that has fallen over much of the U.S. since the beginning of the month, FEMA issued a statement warning of the repercussions snow can have on buildings. The Arkansas Department of Emergency Management (ADEM) collaborated with FEMA to warn residents to pay attention to heavy snow on a roof in particular.

Librarians started work on February 16, 2011 only to discover a major leak flowing from the ceiling of the Carrier Library’s special collections room, which contains historical documents, manuscripts and archived records, along with other special collections. Although the cause of the leak is still unknown, librarians were able to salvage or preserve all of the water-damaged documents from the Virginia library.