Tornado?!

Last Wednesday me and the girls were playing in the back room when my phone made the Amber Alert sound. I was fully expecting to see information regarding a missing child and a possible vehicle to look out for but instead saw this:

I first thought it was a joke. Yeahhhh right there are no tornados in Idaho! A minute or so later our lights started to flicker and then finally the electricity shut out completely, then back on, off, on and off for the span of 20 minutes. Loud sirens started blaring through town and the loud hum of firetrucks driving by. That's when I started to panic. Austin works at the University and it's notoriously known for having poor cell reception, so I was happy he got my text right away informing me he got the alert. I was trying to stay outwardly calm for the sake of the girls, but Maisie could tell something was wrong and she grew more curious the louder the sirens got. I explained that there was a storm that was nearby and that we needed to stay safe. It wasn't until she overheard me talking to Austin on the phone that she heard me say "tornado". That started a slew of conversations about the tornado in The Wizard of Oz- "But Dorothy got taken by the tornado and she was just fine! Maisie's blasé attitude towards the tornado helped soothe my uneasiness, but then my thoughts of the deadly tornados that have ripped through Oklahoma in previous years were running on loop in my brain as well. All I wanted was for Austin to get home and FAST. The thought of being without him if a tornado did hit nearby was too much. Plus possibly being stranded away from each other hours and hours or worse the whole night would have scared me to death. While we were waiting for Austin to get home safely I refreshed webpages following the storm and that looked like this:

Thankfully Austin was able to get home relatively soon and the minute he walked in the door I felt immense relief because at least if something did happen now, we would all be together. 

The conclusion to this story is that the storm headed more north and other than some crazy wind nothing happened- we didn't even end up getting a drop of rain. Turns out a tornado started to form, but never touched down (thank goodness). I think it was a good wake up call because I realized how ill prepared we were. So my new goal now is to be better prepared in case of an emergency. Here's to starting 72 hour kits emergency kits, first aid and ample food storage.

sidenote: In my whirlwind of emotions (mostly panic and fear) I realized that if we lost water usage we would be in real trouble, but thankfully we had two empty 5-gallon jugs that I filled up in the bath tub. It makes me laugh now thinking about it, but it did help ease my fears a little bit at the time. Austin still laughs at me for how scared I was, but better safe than sorry right?