The beautiful girl pictured here sleeping is my eldest daughter. The look on her face reflects the anxiety she went to sleep with. Having nearly gotten blown away (her words) by a series of tornados, she was relieved to be home with us for the weekend, safe and sound. Little did she (or any of us) know, before she even got here, yet another round of bad weather including the sighting of funnel clouds covered the area.We were celebrating her sister's second successful semester of law school/and birthday at a favorite restaurant when our waitress appeared to advise us that the guests and staff alike were being sent home due to weather. Our desserts were boxed up to go and we headed home as quickly as we could get the bill paid and buckled in our seats in the car. As we drove, the weather grew worse. By the time we arrived at home it was pretty clear we might need to take shelter. It was too late by then to opt for a run to a cellar or other storm shelter.
Fortunately, I'd done some serious reading about storm preparations after the tornado devastation of the past week just a few miles away.
I found a handy list of things to do.
I put body pillows in the tub along with my purse and her medicine.
I put the mattress off from the twin bed in the nursery nearby so we could grab it quickly. The instructions I read said make sure and have feet and as much of one's body covered as possible, as many people are injured when flying debris makes contact with exposed skin. I put one terry cloth and one chenille robe: one for each of us. I put water shoes in the tub with our other gear, A flash light and extra batteries went in. Bottles of water and a big bag of peanuts in the shell went in.
The more we prepared, the calmer she became. She never became completely calm, but she did settle down a lot. As a resident of Oklahoma, she is used to changing weather but what we've had recently would be unsettling to most anyone.
We left the mattress our the whole weekend. She slept on it beside me bed and was quite happy to be there.
I found a handy list of things to do.
I put body pillows in the tub along with my purse and her medicine.
I put the mattress off from the twin bed in the nursery nearby so we could grab it quickly. The instructions I read said make sure and have feet and as much of one's body covered as possible, as many people are injured when flying debris makes contact with exposed skin. I put one terry cloth and one chenille robe: one for each of us. I put water shoes in the tub with our other gear, A flash light and extra batteries went in. Bottles of water and a big bag of peanuts in the shell went in.
The more we prepared, the calmer she became. She never became completely calm, but she did settle down a lot. As a resident of Oklahoma, she is used to changing weather but what we've had recently would be unsettling to most anyone.
We left the mattress our the whole weekend. She slept on it beside me bed and was quite happy to be there.
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