Keep your family safe as fall brings new routines, shorter days and cooler temperatures

THE WOODLANDS, Texas - As cool breezes blow in, families turn the page from summer fun to a host of activities that take advantage of the fall season, from pumpkin spice everything to hayrides, fall festivals and football. Amid all the excitement, keep safety first to make sure your memories are about the experience and not a trip to the E.R. Entergy Texas offers these tips for keeping your family safe through it all.

Key takeaways:

• Perform routine equipment maintenance, like getting heating equipment inspected and changing batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors to protect your family at home.
• Take precautions to stay healthy by getting your flu vaccine and heeding Halloween costume and candy safety guidance.
• Stay alert as the time changes. If you see streetlights that are out, report them.

Fall is a good time to remember furnaces, fireplaces and the flu, so you can stay warm, safe and well.

Before the cool temperatures turn cold, the National Fire Protection Association reminds us how to stay comfortable without sacrificing safety:

• Have heating equipment and chimneys cleaned and inspected every year by a qualified professional.
• Never use the oven to heat your home.
• Remember to turn portable heaters off when leaving the room or going to bed.
• Have a three-foot "kid-free zone" around open fires and space heaters.
• Test smoke alarms at least once a month.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides these tips for avoiding the flu:

• Each person should get the influenza vaccine appropriate for their age.
• September and October are generally good times to be vaccinated against the flu and, ideally, everyone should be vaccinated by the end of October. So get your shot before showing off your Halloween costume.

Dressing up, collecting candy and protecting your eyes are all part of a happy Halloween.

The Food and Drug Administration, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offer these tips for a safe and fun spooky season:

• Dress up safely by wearing bright, reflective costumes that say "flame resistant" on the label. If your costume is dark, add reflective tape to be more visible. Wear makeup and hats rather than costume masks that can obscure your vision. Caution: make sure the vibrantly colored makeup is non-toxic by checking the FDA's list of approved color additives.
• Don't wear decorative (colored) contact lenses that appear to change how your eyes look due to the risk of eye injury.
• Remind children not to eat any candy until it has been inspected at home. A snack before trick-or-treating can help prevent nibbling. Parents should inspect commercially wrapped treats for signs of tampering, such as an unusual appearance or discoloration, tiny pinholes, or tears in wrappers. Throw away anything that looks suspicious.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration provides safety tips for drivers and pedestrians :

• Drivers should be alert for trick-or-treaters and other pedestrians, slow down and scan the road. Children may be unaware of traffic and dart into the street unexpectedly.
• Pedestrians should create a "buddy system" to get each other home safely and follow all the rules of the road, obeying signs and signals and crossing streets at crosswalks or intersections. Remember to look for cars in all directions.

November brings shorter days and cozy family gatherings. A few precautions can ensure everyone stays safe.

This year, daylight saving time will end on Sunday, Nov. 1 at 2 a.m., so before you go to bed on Saturday night, set your clocks back one hour. The CDC offers these tips to help you adjust:

• It may take one week for the body to adjust, so reduce demanding physical and mental tasks as much as possible.
• Be vigilant while driving. You and others around you may be drowsy and less alert than usual. Shorter days mean fewer daylight hours and less visibility on the roads.

Earlier sunsets also mean a greater resilience on streetlights. Well-functioning streetlights are vital for community safety, as they significantly improve visibility during nighttime hours.

While Entergy's lighting teams perform routine patrols and inspections of streetlights the company owns or maintains, we rely on and encourage members of the community to report any streetlight outages they encounter. There are several convenient ways to do this:

• Mobile app reporting: This is the recommended method. You can easily report streetlight outages using the outage map feature on the Entergy mobile app. After logging into the app, the app can use your device's GPS to pinpoint your location, or you can manually enter an address. This method allows you to click on the specific streetlight maintained by Entergy, ensuring accurate reporting. Please make sure that location services are enabled on your device to use the GPS feature.
• Website reporting: You can also report streetlight outages by visiting our website and selecting the "Report an outage" option.
• Phone reporting: Alternatively, you can call us directly at 1-800-9OUTAGE to report any streetlight issues.

Not all streetlights are owned or maintained by Entergy. Some may be the responsibility of another utility, local municipality or state agency. To help determine if your case should be handled by Entergy, a streetlight icon will display on our map.

A reminder from the National Safety Council: When you change your clocks, it's also a great time to check the batteries in your smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors.

About Entergy Texas

Entergy Texas provides electricity to approximately 538,000 customers in 27 counties. Entergy generates, transmits and distributes electricity to power life for more than 3 million customers through our operating companies in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Its customers are connected to the Midcontinent Independent System Operator Inc. power grid, which is a regional transmission organization responsible for administering the transmission systems of member utilities in 15 states stretching across the central region of the United States and Manitoba, Canada. We're focused on keeping costs for our customers as low as possible while providing reliable energy that our communities count on. We're also investing in growth for the future with a more resilient, cleaner energy system that includes modern natural gas, nuclear and renewable energy generation. As a nationally recognized leader in sustainability and corporate citizenship, we deliver more than $100 million in economic benefits each year to the communities we serve through philanthropy, volunteerism and advocacy. Entergy is a Fortune 500 company headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana, and has approximately 12,000 employees. Learn more at EntergyTexas.com and connect with @EntergyTX on social media.