First tornado warning of Spring

The rain started about 4AM Wednesday morning continuing through Thursday night and into the wee hours of Friday. We got a whooping 5inches/13cm of rain over that time frame as well as lots of house shaking  thunder & lightening. This storm system generated our first tornado warning of the year with a couple tornadoes touching down locally in the St. Louis area. Fortunately, there were no fatalities and limited property damage. The warning sirens did not go off in my town, but we did a practice home drill to reacquaint ourselves how to expediently go down to the basement with the pets. After 15 years here in Missouri it is no less scary anticipating a tornado than to see the sky turn green, hail fall and have to seek shelter fast.

My youngest likes to ease some of her fears by putting her current favorite things from her room into basement storage for tornado season. I support her in this and have decided the basement is probably the safest place for those all important post-disaster papers, you know, insurance policies & phone numbers, as well as other pertinent valuable information. See my previous post on disaster preparedness from last Spring: http://www.dustoffurthinkin.blogspot.com/2013/03/prepping.html

Between storm fronts, I got to the the store and bought more batteries. At the start of the storm I had replaced all the weak flashlight batteries and completely used up the upstairs supply, and yes, we do have batteries in the basement for emergencies. Certainly here in the Midwest folks should consider making flashlight battery replacement a bi-annual habit, much like replacing the smoke alarm batteries at Daylight Saving Time changes. We have about 12 flashlights handy upstairs; everyone has one by their bed for emergencies and reading, one in the kitchen, at the backdoor, in each car and at the basement stairs. Really, these days they are cheap, have long lasting LED bulbs and nothing is more reassuring when the power goes out than a handy bit of light, besides cell phones make really crappy flashlights!

Well, the rain barrel is full and the bulbs are bloomin'. Hopefully, the sun will come out soon and the saucer magnolia buds will pop. I love the energy and excitement of Spring!