How to be prepared for any disaster...do you have one of these?

other night in my home.  Worked on the net a bit, ate dinner, watched a little tv....

Took the dogs out...ya gotta take those dogs out before you go to bed....and the last thing I did and do every night, was turned on my weather radio to check the weather for the morrow.  

It said we were going to have extremely inclamate weather with chances of severe storms, large hail, and very possibly tornadoes...Well, this was good to know and off I went to sleep.   For we have been having rain and storms all week here.....

halfway sunny skies, I knew we were supposed to have some type of hail and as I have a vegetable garden with tomatoe plants, I decided to cover up the tomatoes so if it did hail, they would not be damaged.  

This was all well and good, I pulled some weeds and went back inside, the wind was supposed to blow around 40 miles and hour, so as it was getting cloudy I put on a movie and started to watch it.  This was about 1:30 in the afternoon.  

Boy, it was a good flick...but my weather radio kept going off stating the weather was getting bad and naming all the counties under tornado watch, and also warning.   Well, I still wasn't concerned...Mine had not been named.....yet.  

But then it was.  I got up, looked out the window and the sky was not pretty.  When I say not pretty, I mean it was ooooohhhhhhgggggllllly looking.   Then it happened.  A town about 30 miles south of me had been hit by a dangerous tornado and it was moving towards where I live at 20 miles an hour....Not good....

As I lived on the coast for about 30 years, I had to frequently evac for hurricanes.  I kept my weather radio with extra batteries (and this is the key....extra batteries--because you are without electricity sometimes for a while...)  ready to flee at a moments notice and had a lock plastic bin already stocked with food, can opener, knife, paper plates, plastic forks, etc, drinking cup...still kept ready for emergencies.....Looked like I was gonna have one.   So I was partway there already.....

Knowing that if my home had been hit, I would lose everything I had, I flew, and I mean flew around the house, gathering jeans, towels, soap, alcohol--emergency supplies.....got a duffel bag and jammed it full of stuff which I needed.....not what I would have liked, but necessities...threw it in the basement....grabbed dog bowls, and a sack of food, down they went....cell phone.....would have no phone.    There was a bad storm headed my way and I had about an hour to get ready if that long.   Dog blankets...leashes....dogs....oil lamp....and down we went.   Of course, I did not forget my important papers in a plastic bag.    NOR THE WEATHER RADIO.....

As my first pick was my Bible and related books by Joyce Meyer, I settled in with the dogs ready to light the oil lamp as I was underground.   The weather radio kept going off telling me how close the storm was.....and how many counties were now under warning...

I wondered how badly the storm had damaged the town 30 miles down the road....I prayed for the people who had lost their homes and asked God if it be His Will to let me keep a roof over my head as in His Word it states that He will supply all of my needs.....I went back to reading.  The radio was going off every minute so finally I turned it off.  We, the dogs and I were safe. 

Since I took the foresight to take crowbars, hammers, and tools down with me, I worried not as I read.   Then I turned the radio back on.   It had gone through (or just past) the town I lived nearest to and had headed up a road which was about 2 miles from my home.  

I praised God and thanked Him for His Wonder and glory.....but knew I was not out of the woods till the warnings and watches were over.    I spent 5 hours in my basement reading the Word.....once I went up as I felt it may be safe and let the dogs out.  We went back down,  The tornadoes were still all around us.   At nine o'clock, we all came up and the sun was shining....but the blackness of the storms I could see a few miles down the road they had passed on to terrorize the county next.   

My point here is this.   This is claimed to be one of the worst tornadoe outbreaks ever up here.  Yet I knew it was coming the night before.    I own a NOAA Weather Radio.  I listen to it faithfully and never ever do not listen to an alert.    I feel that it saved my life for if I had kept watching that movie, I never would have known what was really going on out there.   

When I moved here to MN, I was actually shocked at how few people own one of these life savers.  What they do not realize is that electricity can go down and sirens won't go off and they would have no warning.   But I am always abreast of what the weather is going to do.    As I said, I knew we were supposed to have these storms the night before, so I was already half ready to head underground.   The only safe place in a tornado is in a basement.   One lady actually survived being hit while in her garage, she was not prepared and got in her car.   I do not know how she survived as the roof came crashing in on her and crushed the car.   I know this, God was not ready to take her.   She has important things to do.   I hope she realizes this.  

The weather has been so insane.  Crazy if you will.   Having a NOAA Weather Radio could actually save your life and they are handy when camping for those storms that just pop up out of nowhere.   They will keep you safe and prepared for any weather disaster...Do you have one???   If not, they are around 20-30 dollars.  Invest in one.  Use it.  Listen to it daily and most certainly before you go to bed.    They are quicker than any weather channel on the face of the earth.  

I have enclosed a few links for you all to see what happened here yesterday.  Again, I am still thanking God for sparing my home, my dogs and my garden.  Of course, the wind tore off some of the plastic, but because I was prepared, I only lost one tomoatoe plant.   Praise God!!  I grew those babies from seeds