I grew up in Tornado Alley. Tornadoes were common place in Oklahoma’s springtime. As typical as April showers! I grew up in an area where when the average resident saw a tornado warning on TV they'd run into their front lawn to look for it! I always had a healthy dose of respect for tornadoes, mostly because from a young age I’d seen the destruction they could create. But I wasn’t ever really scared of them – cause when you’re a kid you’re pretty much invincible – remember what that was like.
That and the home I grew up in had a basement – it’s where my brothers' and my rooms were. And the room I grew up in just happened to be our storm shelter. Now that probably seems a bit odd – but it really wasn’t. My dad designed our house and he created one of the rooms to serve as a storm shelter as well – it looks like all the other rooms – it just has cement walls and ceiling and a storm door (it looks like normal door). You see the beauty of this is I never had to worry if a storm blew through – I’d be safe. I can count on one hand how many times people actually had to join me in my room - and one of those did end up in a tornado that, thankfully, missed our house – but not our grain elevators.
Now that I’ve moved to Texas, where basements are a rarity, it’s a completely different story. Granted I’m still not scared of tornadoes – but the healthy dose of respect has been heightened a bit. When the spring came I began to wonder if we had a tornado siren close to us and if it was loud enough to wake us up. I wondered where the best place to go in our house would be (it’s our under the stairs closet by the way). I had thought through in my mind what we should do in case a storm came.
Well last night we got to test that plan out!
At about 3:45 I was woken up to the tornado siren, so I guess that answers my question about it! I woke up Glenn to ask him if thought it was the tornado siren – and he confirmed it was. I looked out the window and it was perfectly calm (something which is never a good sign). I threw on a robe and went downstairs flipped on the tv and saw the meteorologist showing the radar with a storm line full of red coming right towards us. In that lovely storm line there was a lot of circulation over our city a couple of miles away. Then the power went out. So I went and got Glenn and we cleared out the closet and climbed in.
The storm loudly blew over without real incident –at least to our house. When the storm was about 5-7 miles away (I used the whole – count the seconds between thunderclap and lightning – every second is a mile) we headed back upstairs with no power – and woke up with no power. And friends let me tell you there is an art to putting makeup on by candlelight!
And now for the after school special brought to you by the girl brought up in Tornado Alley.
Checklist for storm/tornado preparedness:
- Always know where you are going to “hunker down”
- Your hunker down spot should be your basement or, if there is no basement, a center hallway, bathroom, or closet on the lowest floor.
- Always and candles/flashlight in case your power fails
- Always have a battery powered radio so you can follow the storm in case your power fails and you can’t watch the meteorologist on the TV
- Keep that radio where you hunker down – when seconds count you don’t need to be hunting for a radio.
- Always have stuff to cover you a mattress, blankets, pillows – something is better than nothing when it comes to deflecting debris!
- It’s probably a good idea to throw on some tennis shoes before you go to your hunker down area – because, God forbid, your house is damaged and there is debris everywhere you have something to protect your feet!
Yes I know you all think I'm a huge dork for listing stuff out like this - but it's important to remember.
Yippee - To no damage in our neighborhood!
Blasted -To getting a really awful night of sleep :(
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