Springtime In The Mid-West

Springtime in the Mid-West is one of the most beautiful yet scariest places on earth.  All of the trees, shrubs and grass turn a lush green. Spring is full of magnificently colorful flowers, baby farm animals, baby wildlife and birds chirping. Just as beautiful are the nights. Because there are so few lights in the countryside the sky is pitch black with a billion sparkling stars while here on earth there are fireflies, glow worms and an orchestra of frogs, crickets and owls. It is the most gorgeous happenstance that anyone could dream up and everyone should experience.

But with all that beauty comes a very real threat, tornado season. As the cold air tries to move out and the warm air tries to move in, the two collide. In the springtime our storm radio seems to sound off several times a week. There’s no alarm that will make you jump out of bed any faster than a storm radio. As an extra layer of protection we have the National Weather Service phone alerts. That means when everything starts to alarm, sound off and ring, one could say it gets just a little crazy around here. The storm radio alarms screams, the outdoor storm siren blasts while our home phone and each of our cell phones ring different tones. If we happen to have out of state company, they are paralyzed with fear during the entire process.

It is good to try to always be ready. We keep items in our storm shelter so that we are not running around at the last second. We have a basic wall jack landline phone (handhelds will not work without electrical power). A solar charger for our cell phones and laptop, bottled water, canned foods with a manual can opener, a few days’ worth of medications, a first aid kit, a pry bar, hammer and a few other tools. We also bought some of those cheap eye glasses at the dollar store and keep spare ones with our supplies. They are not our exact prescriptions, but they work in a pinch. A deck of cards, a few board games, a solar charged flashlight, a battery operated flashlight, matches, tennis shoes, socks tee-shirts and jeans, a 5 gallon bucket with plastic bags to line it and toilet paper, dog food, a battery operated radio, pillows and blankets that we keep stored in one of those air tight bags, an air mattress with a manual pump along with a few other miscellaneous items. It may sound like a lot, but it all fits in four plastic tot bins which takes up very little room.

At the end of every winter, I go thought the supplies to check expiration dates and to put in fresh batteries. Then when we receive a weather alert we grab our pets, cell phones, wallets and can be settled into the storm shelter in a minute or two. Most all the time we know well in advance if we are going to have bad weather. With few exceptions, we get about 5-10 minutes warning that our area is threatened.  The problem is that we get complacent and sometimes do not act on the alerts as we should. It took me a few years to even learn the difference between a watch and a warning. Warnings are more sever and my husband taught me a saying that reminds me the differences between the two, “Watch for the Warning to take cover.” A watch means there is a chance so stay on guard. A warning means take shelter now.

For those people that do not have shelters, when a watch is issued it is a good idea to go to the place where a shelter is located. If a warning is issued it is best to stay put, even if you do not have a shelter because you do not want to be caught outside traveling where you could get hit by flying debris, or worse. If you do not have a shelter and you are indoors they say to find the smallest room, on the lowest level, in the middle of the house and take cover there. It is like all other emergencies, having a plan in place helps to keep you calm and take action instead of reacting.

As soon as you have made sure the danger has passed and you and your family are safe then it is time to help others. I have lived in Michigan, California, Missouri and vacationed every summer in Idaho. I have witnessed firsthand how people respond to emergencies across the country. It is my opinion that when an emergency hits the people in the mid-west are at their best. There are no strangers or neighbors. We are all one  big family that would give the shirts off our back, the last dollar in our wallets and work days on end without rest to do everything in our ability to help anyone in need. Yes it is great to see help come in from across the country, but after all the help has returned home, we know our community is still there and that we will recover because we are surrounded by love and compassion.

Our Tornado Drill

My husband and I grew up in California and remember several big earthquakes.  Two years ago we moved to Missouri, smack dab in the middle of Tornado Alley.  In all of our years (even for the Y2K scare) we have never assembled a disaster survival kit.  That changed a few weeks back when Joplin was hit with a tornado.  I helped our oldest daughter pull up FEMA's website where we found a list of supplies to get us started.  She read the list to my husband.  He then told our other girls where to find the items and they got everything for our box.  If we didn't have something, I wrote it on a shopping list.  After putting our box together, we chose to place it at the back of our daughters' closet under the stairs.  As we placed it there, we prayed that we would never need it.

A week later, my girls and I were sitting at the table doing school work like any other day as the tornado siren began to sound.  I knew we would be fine because we just went over this with the kids AND we had all of our supplies in the closet.  The older girls and I quickly gathered school work, cell phones, chargers, my purse, food, shoes and jackets as we ran downstairs.  We scrambled to get the pets and my youngest daughter down with us.  On the way down, I called my husband and mom to tell them where we were.  Once we got down there and took a few moments to calm everyone, I called our property manager.  She urged us to come to the community storm shelter where our neighbors were gathering.  Once again, we gathered our belongings, put the pets in the basement bathroom, and left our house on foot.  On the short walk, I called my husband and told him we were going elsewhere.  My youngest daughter began panicking and I carried her the rest of the way with my other two running ahead of us.

We spent about an hour in the shelter with twenty other people and dogs before heading back home.  In that hour my daughter was able to calm down and I was able to think though all that happened.  Fortunately, the only thing that ever came our way that day was a good practice run.  Here are SOME lessons we learned (or were reminded of):

• No matter how you feel underneath, stay calm so you can help the kids stay calm.
• Do a family drill, even if it feels cheesy.  This is the only way to work the bugs out.
• Pack some plastic bags in case someone's stomach isn't calm.
• Put your emergency kit somewhere that you can take it with you if needed.  We repacked ours into three backpacks rather than one container.  This way three family members could each grab a bag.  Our kit did nothing for us when we were in the shelter and not one person there had any supplies.  It had the potential to get ugly in there.
• Pack some fun stuff in the kit to help distract the kids.
• If possible, have a small supply of prescriptions in the kit.
• Call someone and tell them your plan as soon as you know something is going on.  We lost cell phone service during the storm and didn't get service back until eight hours after it was over.
• As soon as you return to normal (or as soon as possible) call that person back and tell them you are OK.  For good measure, call anyone else who may be concerned.  I called my grandpa who would have panicked when he saw the news that evening because several tornadoes did touch down near our town.

These are a few things that come to mind.  Please share any other suggestions with me!