Getting Ready For A Storm

April 10th, 2008

otherwise known as “batton down the hatches.”

disclaimer:  there will be some joking, because, well, i’m an idiot.  but in all seriousness, this is a pretty serious storm.  and it’s hitting places that have already been hit pretty hard.  please, please, please pray for us and all the people in the path of this storm.

• first of all, go to NOAA, enter your zip code and see what your warnings are.  this is cutting out the middle man.  your local stations get some of their info here.
• we’ve known this storm is coming for a couple of days now, so i started prepping then.  i have lots of ready to eat foods (we’re in an area notorious for losing electricity and we’re not in an area that’s high priority to get back on quickly.)  lunch meats, i baked some crescent rolls this morning to keep for later, we have pb&j at the ready, some snacky foods, fruit, and tuna fish – nothing that will need microwaving or the stove.  we used to have gas heating and i took for granted hot showers and cooking abilities in an outage.
• we’re on high ground, so flooding is not really a concern for us.  i did ask my huz last night if there was any concern of the dam breaking here and he said, if it did, he thinks we’re on the other side of it.  so we will not have a scene like the one in “o, brother where are thou!”
• i will dress the children, including shoes, in just a little bit.
• the dog leash will be with us.
• i’ve located the matches, candles, flashlights.
• we have an emergency radio that tells warnings.  that is out and on.
• in just a little while we’ll make the bathroom look like this.
• we have several read-alouds ready and some ideas for playing games in the dark.
• we’re all clean, we showered last night so that we wouldn’t have filthy kids and then wonder what to do about hot water if the electricity goes out.
• and, obviously, it’s of utmost importance to get in any blogging while i do all this.  i’m fully aware i’m a fool.

it sounds as if i’m a panicky person in storms.  and really i’m not.  i love a storm.  i used to stand on the porch with my honey and watch ‘em roll in.  i loved it.  but now i have a bunch of kiddos.  and that changed the game just a bit.  i’m still not scared, but i have to be prepared.  especially when my honey’s at work and i’m the johnny on the spot.

so, i thought i’d share what we do around here.  y’all that have already been through the storm – how are ya?

(as i type – the warning radio is going off.  i better fix that bathroom and grab some books and snacks.  argh.)

and those that have yet to go through it – we’re prayin’ for ya.