Our 1st Tornado Siren

Every Evening we have the same routine...
We check the weather.
Our clothing is laid out.
Shoes are placed by the basement steps.
Our laptop Case packed with our external hard drives and chargers.
And the dog leashes on top of the kennels.

We do all of this in case Tornado Sirens go off in the middle of the night.

So with all of that said. It was no different last night.

Last night before bed, I checked the weather. I saw a Big Storm way up north on the Minnesota/Canada border. Normally, the storm, would proceed east thru Northern Wisconsin and toward Michigan. Since I thought we had nothing to worry about. I told Alan, "Don't worry about getting things ready. I'm really tired, lets just go to bed".

BIG MISTAKE

Fast Forward... I'm asleep. Dreaming. Because its 4:45am...
All of the sudden in my dream I hear this faint noise... and it just doesn't quit.

I wake up.
I lay there for a few minutes. I can still hear a faint noise.
I think to myself "Huh.. that's really weird."
I get up. Walk over to our bedroom window.

The Sky is Green. A Minty Green. The clouds are low. It is EXTREMELY Windy. (as in 65mph)
I open the window.

(This is not my video but it shows you exactly what we hear when it goes off and how fast these storms move in)


I realize what is happening!! I am completely dumbfounded!!
I just stood there, almost as if I was in a trance! I couldn't take my eyes off the window!!

So many thoughts went thru my head...
Oh My Gosh this is the REAL thing!!!
I can't believe how Green the sky is!!
What time is it??
I shouldn't be standing here!
The Clouds look so weird!!!
Most importantly, how long have the sirens been going off?!
And how much time do we have??!

I stood there for only a minute, but I felt like I was standing there for at least 5 mins.
As quickly as I realized what was happening my adrenalin kicked in.

I yelled to Alan.. "AL WAKE UP!!!! ALAN ITS A TORNADO SIREN!!! GET UP!!!!".
Alan jumps up. He immediately asks... "HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN GOING OFF?!"

I am scrambling to put my sweat pants on. At this point I'm shaking. I am so caught off guard, I literally put 2 of my legs in the same pant hole twice!!! We are throwing our laptops and cells into our computer bag. I slip on my shoes and put the bag over my shoulder.

I run over to Brenton's room. "BRENT WAKE UP! WE GOTTA GO! THERE IS A TORNADO COMING". Brenton starts crying and says "My tummy hurts! I don't want it to come today." He wasn't moving. So I picked him up in his blanket and put him in the hallway. I told him to run to the basement!

I run into Savannahs room. I literally just scooped her up and ran toward the stairs. Mean while Alan runs to the other side of the house to grab the dogs and there leashes. We all meet on the stairs.

We all get into our tornado room in the basement. Which consists of a room with all 4 walls in-cased in cement. We had camping chairs already set up, our emergency bags which consisted of changes of clothing for each person, shoes for the kids, and our toiletry's. We also had our 72 hour kits, along with snacks for the kids, a few toys, and sippy cups.

We sat in the basement for 35 minutes.

We watched the doppler radar go over Dubuque.
The kids were quiet and just held onto the dogs.
While sitting there I did discover my bra was on inside out. My shirt was backwards. And I had 2 different socks on.

The rest of the day has been pleasent. Sunny and no signs of a cloud in site. The Storm had winds over 100 mph to the east and west of us. Tornado's in Minnesota and damage all the way to Chicago.

Later on I didn't hear the kids playing anymore. This is how I found them...

Looking back I think it would have made a really great 1920's silent film! You know with the old pianos playing? With Captions in between scenes. :)

Hopefully these occurrences will be few and far between.