We hope this bout of freezing rain doesn’t catch you unprepared, but just in case it does, here are a few tips:

1. Do not step outside quickly in the morning. Black ice is hard to see, and if you start to slide, your only hope is to pull your arms to your sides and try and protect your wrists and your head.

2. The best way to make your walkway safe is to pre-treat it, preferably with a plant and lawn safe ice-melt product. Calcium chloride is the best choice because it melts ice at very low temperatures and is probably the safest chemical choice for lawns and landscapes. To pre-treat, spread a very small amount on your walkways before the ice or freezing rain begins. Pre-treatment requires only a quarter of the amount it would take to melt ice after the fact.

3. Other good ice-melt choices are potassium chloride and magnesium chloride.

4. If all you have is rock salt (NACL), which is damaging to lawns and landscaping, use it as a pre-treatment before the freezing rain. A small amount will make the walkway safe. Try and keep it away from the edges of your lawn and landscape plants. Buy some calcium chloride or play sand for the next round of solid water.

5. If you wake up to dangerous surfaces, use whatever you have on hand, but be prepared to wait about a half hour to allow it to melt the ice and provide some traction.

6. Some of the best after-the-storm choices are play sand (like you’d buy for a child’s sandbox) and kitty litter. Both will provide good traction without any possible harm to your landscape plants. And you don’t have to wait.