With the cold weather season here, it is important that you take precautionary measures to ensure the safety of yourself and your family. During times of extremely cold temperatures avoid going outside, and always watch after the elderly and persons with disabilities. Below are some tips on how you can stay safe this winter.

Safety tips for your home:

• Use generators correctly – never operate a generator inside the home, including the basement or garage. Do not hook up a generator directly to the home's wiring. The safest thing to do is to connect the equipment needed directly to the outlets on the generator.
• Prevent frozen pipes - when the weather is very cold outside, open cabinet doors to let warm air circulate around water pipes. Let the cold water drip from the faucet served by exposed pipes.
• Don’t forget family pets – bring them indoors. If that’s not possible, provide adequate shelter to keep them warm and make sure they can get to unfrozen water.
• Avoid using a stove or oven to heat the home. Keep a glass or metal fire screen around the fireplace and never leave a fireplace fire unattended.
• If using a space heater, place it on a level, hard, nonflammable surface. Turn the space heater off when leaving the room or going to sleep. Keep children and pets away from the space heater and do not use it to dry wet clothing.

Safety tips for when you are on the road:

• If you must travel, please keep the following in mind: 
  
  • Be patient - drive slow and leave plenty of room between vehicles
  • Please do not pass plow trucks on the right - stay far behind them
  • If you are stuck on a road, do not leave your vehicle - stay with your vehicle, call for help on a cell phone and wait in your vehicle for help to arrive
  • Be sure to have a vehicle emergency supply kit that contains food, blankets, and other materials that will help in case you get stranded

For more information and tips you can click the links below:

DuPage Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management

http://www.dupageco.org/protectdupage/
www.facebook.com/protectdupage

The American Red Cross:

http://www.redcross.org/
https://www.facebook.com/redcross

Illinois Emergency Management Agency

http://www.illinois.gov/ready/Pages/default.aspx
http://www.state.il.us/iema/
https://www.facebook.com/ReadyIllinois

Federal Emergency Management Agency

https://www.facebook.com/FEMA
http://www.fema.gov/
http://www.ready.gov/

Local Emergency Warming Centers

Bensenville Warming Center locations

These locations open during normal business hours. Pets are not allowed in the shelter, unless it is a sight impaired person’s service dog.
Bensenville Village Hall  12 S. Center St. 630-766-8200 Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: 8am-5pm Tuesday: 8am-7pm Saturday: 9am-Noon Sunday: Closed	The Edge II Ice Arena 735 E. Jefferson  630-766-8888 (Under extreme cold weather conditions the lobby/concession area is used and would be warmer than outside) Monday – Friday: 6am – 10pm Saturday and Sunday: 7am – 10pm
Bensenville Public Library 200 S. Church Rd. 630-766-4642 Monday-Thursday: 9am - 9pm Friday: 9am - 5pm Saturday: 9am - 5pm Sunday: 1pm - 5pm	Bensenville Park District Leisure Center 1000 W. Wood Ave. 630-766-7015 Monday - Friday: 5:30am - 10pm Saturday and Sunday: 7am - 5pm

After Hours

If there is a need to open a warming center after hours, our first facility will be the Park District Leisure Center. If the Leisure Center is unavailable or if we need to add warming centers the following facilities will be contacted for opening;

• Churches
• Village Hall
• Library 
• Schools*

* Schools will be contacted when it’s an extreme cold weather event, in such an event schools may be closed.  If schools are open for student attendance we would look to the schools last to avoid disrupting student studies.

Notification of afterhours Warming Center openings and the location(s) would be posted via VOB website, use of Code Red, commercial radio, other social media outlets.
**Note
If there was a power outage that effected Bensenville during cold temperature periods, the Village with the cooperation of the Park District would open the Deer Grove Leisure Center around the clock until the power was restored to the affected areas in Bensenville.