I’m a weather watcher. I have to be for a couple reasons… The first: I have a houseful of kiddos that I am responsible for. Their safe is important. Second: Hubby is a volunteer firemen and much of what they do in our rural area is watching the weather to insure the safety of the community as well as respond to fires.
All week long they had targeted Wednesday afternoon as a stormy weather day. My hope is always that if the storms come, they come AFTER childcare. The kids get so worked up about storms. Luckily, the storms did come after childcare but not really far after childcare ended.
My last parent left at five-I still had Carver as Kalissa was working late and Craig was coming home and going straight to the fire station to go watch the incoming weather for tornados…the weather was starting to look worse and the scanner we have that monitors fire and police started going off. I turned on the television. The weather was on and I could see Carver and I wouldn’t get a walk in and the storm would be coming soon. We were in a thunderstorm watch but often that means little.
Carver was ready for a second nap of the day so I rocked him and listened to the weather on television. Carver fell asleep and I ran upstairs to do a couple things in the sewing room that could be continued downstairs once Carver woke. That’s when the scanner went off and said, “The storm will be hitting Waucoma at 5:35pm”. I did the things and the storm blew in…I looked at the clock and yep, it was 5:35pm. That’s when the power went out. UGH. It was raining and really windy. I went down stairs. Thinking I might as well go down as there wasn’t anything I could do upstairs with no power.
I came down the steps to see this out my front window. The neighbor across the road had a tree that fell over and was lying in the next door neighbor’s yard.
UGH…what a mess. I could see that the house was okay so on to check Carver….he was awake now too. The house was so dark…I finally found a candle. It’s not easy to entertain this guy with no electricity. It’s not that he needed electricity…..it was that he was uncomfortable roaming in the house when it was so dark.
The storm passed but still no electricity. The neighbor’s tree took the power line down in our neighborhood thus the lack of electricity.
With no air conditioning the house was warming up so I opened the back door to let air in and put Carver near it so he could have light and a breeze as it was still lightly raining out.
Then I gave him some Cheetos….
After that I entertained him with a bath.
Then the rain stopped but the house was still dark and Carver wasn’t content to play so outside on the front porch we went.
By then this crew had gathered at the neighbors to help….
Reports came in about storms hitting in neighboring places…south east of town…north of town…in the neighboring towns….oh everywhere across NE Iowa….It’s not the best but as of yet no loss of life and hopefully it stays that way. It’s sad to see the pictures come in with all the damage.
It didn’t take long and the power company….
…and Carver’s mommy came home too.
It was an interesting night hanging out with Carver…and dealing with the weather.
I do know one thing….we are getting a lantern or some kind of emergency light source…and we’re getting the weather scanner fixed too. Sometimes things have to happen for us to know what we need…and those are two things I’ve found I need.
Glad everyone was ok….storms are scary….and the lighting strikes in the province of British Columbia here in Canada have contributed to the horrible forest fires there .
We lose power often so I have eight gallons of water, 10 large candles, boxes of matches, four flashlights and batteries, hand crank radio and batteries, spare clothes and shoes, blankets, air mattress with hand pump, camping/cooking gear, dried foods, etc so I guess you could say I have a small homestead in my storm room. The storm room is made of poured concrete and rebar walls and ceiling, 6 inches thick, and its the most safety a person can ask for in a tornado. I don’t stock marshmallows or s’mores so its lacking any desserts, but otherwise it has what a person needs after losing power. You have lots to think about how you want to stock your place for the future! And I need to think about adding some sweets to my storm room stash!
The first house we lived in when we were first married lost power frequently. We bought a Coleman lantern that used 6 D cells and gave a lot of light and got a lot of use.
As a teacher I know you are familiar with fire drills which we had to practice in school. Perhaps you could get several flashlights – one for each child – and have a storm practice. I know it’s not the same as an actual storm when the lights go out but it’s another activity to help the kids feel safer if/when the lights go out. I, too, realize I need more batteries or to check the candle supply after an emergency. That reminds me to go check the flashlights I have in my car. I enjoy your blog!
We don’t need a storm for our power to go out. All a raccoon has to do is sneeze and it goes out! There are only two houses on this line so when the power goes, it’s often for two or more hours. We have flashlights, candles (which my husband doesn’t like due to the fire hazard), propane lanterns, and a propane stove. They have been useful many times.
Glad you stayed safe and dry and no one was seriously hurt with the tree down. I think a good lantern is a must and if its battery operated, change them yearly :)