Wake Up Call

We had a bit of a scare on Wednesday night. A large band of thunderstorms came through our area, which is not uncommon for this time of year in Texas. As I was watching tv, though, I realized this time was a little different. There was a funnel cloud sighting approximately 3 miles away from our house and the projected path if it touched down would go through our neighborhood. It was one of those moments where you say, "Oh crap!" and feel like you have little time to think about what to do next.


Of course, as my luck would have it, I was home alone. B was busy downtown at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse having a dental meeting of some sort. Wah, wah. Anyway, I went upstairs and got J and brought him downstairs. He didn't even move until I laid him down on the floor on a pillow beside the closet we would go into if we had to. Hail began to fall, which I later on learned was literally up to the size of a baseball. The satellite signal went out on the tv and I realized that my means of gathering information about the storm was just lost. I realized that we had an old clock radio with a battery backup upstairs, so I raced up to get it to see if I could hear anything on the radio. Little good would it have done me if the power went out though; the battery was dead and all of our replacements were out in our detached garage.


I texted B and told him NOT to come home. I got him just in time because he was just about to leave. He told me that after I called him, everyone else's phones starting ringing telling people the same thing.


Thankfully the storm came and went without a tornado touching down, but it was a pretty scary evening! The scariest thing for me was that I realized how unprepared we are in case of an actual emergency situation. Sure, it was easy to get into a closet, but if anything had happened that required us to be in there for awhile, I had nothing.


Today I spent a little bit of time getting a few important things together like flashlights that would be guaranteed to work when we need them to. Ever go to use your flashlight and the batteries are dead? Well, you may want to go and get a few of these:

a wind up flashlight (these are great because there is no battery- you just wind it up and get up to 40 minutes of light each time).


I also picked up a portable radio (I actually got an all in one flashight, radio, siren sounder) and some first aid stuff (I suppose you could make your own kit from supplies around the house, but the cost would end up being about the same). I found a variety of emergency lists online and you could pack yourself to the gills with supplies, but here is a concise one if you're interested :http://www.ready.gov/america/_downloads/checklist.pdf. I didn't realize how much we could possibly actually need if something did happen like a contact lens case and solution for myself (an extra pair of glasses in the bin is not an option) and diapers and wipes and nonperishable food.


So we're just trying to be a little more prepared, but not paranoid. I'm glad everything was okay. The only thing that took a bit of a hit was the garden, as the zucchini and squash lost a lot of flowers, but we're lucky if that's all that happened.


Hope everyone has a good weekend! We're alone again through Sunday. B is off in CA at his cousin's college graduation. I met W when he was about 10, so I really feel up there in age!