"Severe weather advisories including thunderstorms, tornadoes, and large hail have been issued for the entire NE Oklahoma area. Please use caution and stay tuned to the weather as you're preparing to leave the office and as you travel home this afternoon/evening."
Of course this sends everyone to Explorer to check out the radar. I call to check with the mother of Kiddo's best friend to find out if her daughter was at swim practice. She's not, but the mom tells me there are reports of golf ball sized hail one county over. OK, that's it. I packed up my work stuff, pulled Kiddo out of swim practice and headed home to get the newest of our cars into the garage. Kiddo and I get home, turn on the TV to check out the radar just as the weather radio comes on with a tornado warning for our community, there's one 6 miles south and headed our way. So this was definitely my favorite thing early this evening:
This is the storm "cellar" which is bolted to the floor of our garage. It doesn't look like much, but it's rated for a F4 tornado. It is definitely a nice thing to have when the tornado sirens go off.
My guy keeps it stocked with what Kiddo and I call his "cranky" toys. The radio and flashlights are hand cranked which eliminates the need to be sure they have working batteries. It's nice to have the radio, we have a local AM station that does a real good job of keeping up with the local Office of Emergency Planning, so you can follow what's going on.
We got a bit of hail, strong winds and lots of rain. Thankfully no tornado. It even cleared off enough so that the sun came out for a bit before it set.
That's it for me this week. Hop over to Quilting in My Pyjama's for more favorite things.
10 comments:
It must be quite comforting to have the storm "cellar". Tornados can be scary. Never been close to one but I've seen the damage they can do.
Thank goodness the worst of it missed you entirely. I really hate hail and high winds, can't even think about tornadoes! That room in the basement sounds like the perfect thing to make one feel much safer in such weather possibilities.
Tornados are probably the only thing I don´t miss about Texas. I remember all of the times I spent with the kiddies in the storm shelter. The first thing we learn after moving to the states were how to behave when there is a tonado warning. Nice introduction to a new home :-)
Glad that tornado passed by.
Sounds scary to me. I'l take all our creepy crawlies over tornados anytime. Glad it bypassed you and that you didnt need the storm cellar. But I was really interested to see one because I've heard about them before.
Do you have some hand sewing stashed in that cellar of yours?
I'll second Shay's comment, I would definitely prefer my ginormous spiders, cockroaches, snakes, and anything other creepy crawlies than have to sit out a tornado.
Do you keep anything else that you need, in the storm cellar ?
The hand-crank stuff makes sense - I have to check the batteries on everything in the spring. Our shelter is underneath the garage and attracts lots of spiders. Such fun to clean it out.
after escaping an F3 13 years ago I think your "shelter" is cool !!! But, be sure to grab your sewing stuff as you run for cover!!!!!
God, I can't imagine having to have those sort of preparations as a matter of course. Glad you are ok and no damage done.
Glad there was no serious damage! I have been through a tornado and I know how scary it feels and experienced and saw so much of the damage firsthand!
I'll bet you'll be glad when DH is back home again!
Wow, here on the south coast of Australia, a storm is an exciting event with the thunder and the lighting - about the only way it could kill you is if you get electrocuted. How big is your shelter inside?
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