Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Prepared for Disaster?

We had some serious weather here in Southeastern Oklahoma yesterday. The National Weather Service reported about 10 tornado's touched down.  Five people are dead and dozens of injuries have been reported. Lot's of people are still without power today.  Heavy winds, rain, and hail.  Everything you need for a recipe for disaster.  From watching the radar we barely missed some sheer force winds.  We were lucky.

One thing became quite clear last night.  I am not prepared for this type of emergency.    We don't have television here, which used to be my first source of information for bad weather. The FM radio stations here did a poor job of covering events and I was unable to pick up a decent AM station.   We do not have a NOAHH weather radio.  Trust me, its on the list now. (At the top of it) And lastly, even though we did not loose internet connection throughout the evening- I had no idea where to find more detailed information than the ability to watch the radar. That I can fix.  I can be more informed for the next time.

I have always been freaky about weather.  It probably stems from my grandmother and my mom both being  weather watchers.  Growing up on the Gulf Coast hurricanes and squalls were common events.  As far back as I can remember when there was bad weather the women in my life would be glued to either the radio or the TV and would ride out most storms without getting up except for the personal call of nature.  Ok that's an exaggeration, but not by much.
For the last several years I lived in Central Texas. We lived just down the road from Jarrell, Texas when one of the worst tornado's ever reported demolished the entire town in 1997. The weather for miles around was chaotic that entire afternoon and evening.  The fear of another F5 tornado striking in the area was a real one. Several smaller tornado's were reported that day as well.  One of which touched down less than a half a mile from where I worked at the time.  There were 20 confirmed tornado's that day. We were informed and had evacuation plans.  Others were not so lucky.



I suppose what I am trying to say here is that I should have been prepared this time and sadly was not.  There is no excuse for that.  There is also no excuse for not being more prepared the next time something like this occurs. We were lucky this time.  We might not be so lucky in the future. This is why we prepare.  I learned a valuable lesson yesterday.  Things could have gone horribly wrong.  We dodged the bullet this time but might not be so blessed the next time.  Are you prepared for a natural disaster where you live?

7 comments:

  1. I'm glad you guys are safe. We rarely have tornadoes here. But, there has been a small one every once in a while. Thanks for the reminder. I too, am not prepared but, I will be now. Once again, I'm glad you guys are safe.

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  2. I'm glad you made it thru the bad weather ok. I'd make a "plan" if I were you with a list of what you need to get (like the radio) and get 'er done.

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  3. hasn't the weather this spring been something else? Glad it didnt' effect you directly, other than making you more aware.
    I don't know what kind of "natural disaster" type weather we would have in central Montana other than long and bad winter storms. I supposed it would be easy for us to run into severe weather on the road, and in fact we do, though never a tornado. I wouldn't even know what to do of that happened!

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  4. Sad as it is, I attended my freshman year @ Jarrell (14 years before the mentioned tornado...). I lived most of my adult life in Williamson & Travis counties.

    The NOAA weather radios are rightly at the top of your list, Lady SciFi... Glad everyone is okay.

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  5. I kept coming here to check to see if you posted yesterday. Was worried about you. I am trying to get myself prepared for hurricane season which starts next month. We have been lucky the past few years so I have a gut feeling this year won't be so lucky.

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  6. We had a tornado half a mile south of us. We spent 10 minutes in the 4x4 bathroom downstairs with me, DH, and the dog. We all had comforters over us and believe me, it got warm. We had 4 bottles of water, a box of graham crackers, my knitting, a flashlight, and a radio. I was not going to put in that much work and lose your sox. :D

    Mushroom

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  7. Thank you all for your kind words and wishes. And Mushroom you made me laugh out loud... I can just see you with those socks!!!

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