With the recent snowstorm Jonas and the big impact it had, there is a lot that can be learned from this experience. Now all snowstorms should be prepared for but this storm was different because it was one of the biggest storms to hit the New Jersey area in recent years. A few of these tips are not limited to just snow storms but any act of Mother Nature whether it'd be a hurricane, thunder storms, etc. Some of these will probably come off as common sense but even so, they should still be taken into account if we ever get a visit from Jonas' brother/sister storm.

5. Stock up on food.

Now I know what you're thinking, it's a snow storm not the apocalypse. But I will have you know that the day after the storm, I head numerous people at work (yes I still went to work after) talk about how they had wished they had gone grocery shopping before the storm hit. When you're stuck inside all day and have absolutely nowhere to go, you can get pretty bored pretty quickly. And what do a lot of people do when we're bored, we eat. Whether it's mom's leftovers, frozen pizzas, TV dinners, whatever it may be we find it, we're eating it. Also think about that your whole family is snowed in, so now there's more people who are bored and/or hungry in the house. It's like preparing for a party, if you know you're going to have a lot of people in the house, make sure you stock up on food so there's enough for everyone, even it's just for a day. Would you want to be stuck in a house all day, bored out of your mind with an empty refrigerator?

4. If you're dorming at college that is close to home, go home.

You're first response would be why would I leave? I could just stay put in my room and not have to worry about anything. Think about it for a second, you may have food in your mini refrigerator but not a lot. With a storm this big the university is closed so there aren't any places to go besides the bathroom. It can get pretty boring really quickly if you're just stuck in a room all by yourself for a whole day. Now I know that people do like their privacy and have probably been waiting for days like this, but trust me just go home. Soon you will start to get hungry and will probably finish that mini fridge if it isn't empty already. I actually know someone who walked all the way from their dorm to the only open dining hall on campus just to get food and in the snow mind you. That same soon realized that they wanted to go home and finally made the decision and went home. Also if you do plan to head home, do it BEFORE the storm hits. Some people tried to drive home in the snow and some of them ended up stuck on the roads for hours because of how bad the weather was. I had an experience myself where my family dared to drive home in the middle of blizzard and it took us six hours to get home. So please head this warning if you want to go home leave as soon as you can. In the long run it will be better for you to be snowed in with your house with your family rather than in a small dorm room by yourself.

3. Be prepared for power outages.

While power outages tend to come out of nowhere and catch us by surprise we can still prepare ourselves for them anyways. If you have a paper to type up, make sure you charge your laptop 100 percent. Keep your phone charged in case you need it later. The last thing you want to happen is to be working on that eight page research paper and suddenly your computer dies on you.

2. Stay at home.

I know what you're thinking, it's a blizzard we couldn't leave home if we wanted. I am merely saying plan on staying home if you know ahead of time that a big storm is coming. I was scheduled to go to work the day Jonas hit and I obviously didn't go because the snow was too bad to make the trip, but the next day I talked to the people at my job who did make the trip to work and they told me they were stranded in the snow from 6 in the morning until 10 p.m.! No money is worth that. If you're going to be stranded anywhere, you much rather be stranded at home where at least you have a house full of people to hang with, a fridge filled with food and of course your bed!

1. Buy a snowblower.

The worst part about ANY snow storm is the aftermath... having to clean it up. I could write a whole other article about how much I hate shoveling the snow. I have wasted so much time out in the freezing cold shoveling that unforgiving snow and with the amount of snow we received this year from Jonas, shoveling this snow would have been a nightmare. Key word would have been had it not been for the best investment that we ever made... a snowblower. Our new snowblower has helped cut down our shoveling time drastically. We actually got most of our driveway cleared in about 20-25 minutes, a lot better than the typical hour it would normally take us. If you want to guarantee that your driveway gets cleared, do yourself and your family a favor and get a snowblower, you will thank me later.