Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Tornado Shelter

We live in Iowa. Tornados are to be expected.

When we built the house -- John made sure the area under our screened-in porch could do double duty as a storm shelter. It is a 10' x 20' room off our basement -- with concrete walls and a concrete ceiling.

Fortunately, we have seldom had to take cover in that room -- but we have always been pretty smug about knowing it's there when we need it.

Last week -- we needed it. There was a tornado sighting just five miles from us -- and the sirens were going off. The rain was coming down in torrential sheets -- and a black cloud was fast approaching.  The Doppler Radar said a tornado would hit Princeton at 3:51 PM...

We went downstairs to our "storm shelter"...

Problem #1:   John can't close the door...oops....it was blocked by two years' worth of  lava flow from t-shirt mountain...(yes, he WAS annoyed...)

Problem #2:  No place to sit. REALLY?? Didn't there used to be a coupla chairs in this room??

I looked around.  Where are those damned chairs? Hummm... maybe behind that big Christmas tree.  Could there be a chair hiding under my dozen suitcases?  I doubt it.  Maybe I could sit on one of the plastic tubs full of seminar samples.  Me sitting on tupperware?  Not the best idea...

Just then - the lights went out.  Electricity is like so many other things -- you only appreciate it when IT IS NOT WORKING...

Problem #3:  NO CANDLES??  No matches...??  Wow.  That's a huge oversight...

John and I stood there, in cave darkness, with the storm raging outside.  There could be a tornado passing right over us.  I was leaning against shelves loaded with canned food (but, of course -- no can opener).  John was standing against the door (t-shirt mountain could have an avalanche and pop it open again).

I kept thinking of more things we DO NOT HAVE in our storm shelter.  No water, no weather radio, no batteries, no board games.... 

After a very quiet, uncomfortable six hours (okay -- it was about 30 minutes)...I told John that I was leaving the safety of our concrete room...

Even though I did manage to download a flashlight app on my cellphone....I couldn't stand it for one more minute.

My choice was clear.  Take my chance with the tornado.  Or die of boredom.


No comments:

Post a Comment