“Every good winter safety plan starts before the snow does,” Lombardo says in the video, which shows images of gas being pumped, a cellphone being plugged in and a snowy Buffalo street.

Hispanic Heritage Council of Western New York President Casimiro D. Rodriguez Sr. urges residents in another clip to stay indoors during a blizzard when the heat goes out and make sure of proper ventilation if using alternative heating sources.

Taking a page from the Boy Scouts, Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown wants all city residents to be prepared as they head into winter.

And now the mayor and other city leaders are taking that simple message to television with a series of public service announcements aimed at helping people be ready in case of a blizzard or other major snowfall.

The PSAs began appearing this past weekend during Spectrum News 1-Buffalo newscasts. They’re part of a larger city effort to beef up communications with residents after multiple post-blizzard reports noted failures in communication leading up to and during the December 2022 storm that dumped more than 4 feet of snow in parts of Buffalo and led to the deaths of 44 city residents.

Charter Communications, which operates Spectrum News, agreed to produce and air the PSAs after participating in the city’s Storm Response Task Force meetings earlier this year.

“It was an epic storm last year in the Buffalo area, historic, and we wanted to do our part,” said Lara Pritchard, Charter’s vice president of communications for the Northeast Region. “One of the ways that came up where we could help is to raise awareness with some of these public service announcements that give people tips and offer direction as far as keeping safe during these large winter storms, or any storm for that matter.”

The PSAs will air on the cable newscast and its livestreams throughout the winter months.

“The main message is to be prepared, is to ahead of time – if it’s weeks, if it’s months, if it’s all year – have supplies in your home: Non-perishable foods, water, flashlight with batteries, extra bedding. We don’t go into all of those specific details, but the whole message is to be prepared for winter weather circumstances,” said Brown.

It was vital for city, county and state governments to be engaged in “pre-preparation” for winter storms, and “it’s also critically important for our residents,” Brown said.

“It’s important that people be prepared in advance themselves, not just rely on government, family, church members, neighbors. There’s got to be a level of personal preparedness,” he added.

The PSAs are about 30 seconds in length and will be sprinkled among other public service announcements and regular advertising during the Spectrum News around-the-clock news programming.

Brown said he was happy with how the PSAs turned out and appreciates the commitment Charter Communications has shown.

“They’re short. They’re tight. They’re clear. They’re just long enough to get out useful information and short enough that they’re not going to lose anybody’s attention,” he said. “I think they were very well done by Spectrum and we’re very appreciative that they’re adding this PSA opportunity to what we’re doing to keep people safe during winter weather and other situations and in particular extreme weather.”

The PSAs are part of a more layered approach to storm communications recommended under the city’s latest snow plan.

The city will send emergency alerts by text message or email under its BuffAlert system to residents who have signed up for the alerts, as well as to highway message boards installed in high-traffic areas around the city, to radio and television bulletins, and to social media. Emergency storm information will be available in 66 different languages, including Arabic, Bengali, Karen and Swahili, to cater to new immigrant groups.

In addition, in very limited circumstances, the city will be able to use the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Integrated Public Alert Warning System (IPAWS) to sound an alarm like an Amber Alert for a missing child or a tornado warning, followed by a message about the emergency and any immediate actions that people should take.