Wilma

First day back to work from Hurricane Wilma. Luckily it didnt have a huge direct impact on my area. Never the less it did have its scary moments. After 3 hurricanes my family gets into a routine on what to do for hurricanes. First we obviously prepare with batteries and the such, but also being that we have a two story home, my wife and I decide to sleep downstairs in the Living Room.

We tried the Family room which is empty awaiting a pool table but there is no TV in there. YET! LOL..

Most of the reason for us sleeping downstairs comes from my wife being affraid of the upstairs area in storms and the obvious reasoning of Tornados that spawn from the Hurricanes. This one gave me a real scare when the National Weather Service said that there is a Tornado Warning for my town and the Towns east of me.

It was a definte cause of concern and my wife and I frantically after the pleasant Kiss your ass good bye sound of the Emergency Broadcast system, began running around preparing the one safe room we have in our home. The Laundry room on the first floor. I think we were panicking and doing to much to quickly because my son began to shake like he was cold but it was his nerves.

Seeing his fear in his eyes made me realize that I need to calm down. I am usually pretty cool, calm and collected in stressful situations. I have proven that countless times. This time for a brief period I was a bit too excited mostly with fear and it quickly dawned on me that I need to relax. Most of my nervousness of the impending doom from a Tornado comes from the fact that I never been through a Tornado, nor being a kid from the Bronx ever thought I would have been.

Funny thing is that when I purchased my home I made sure I did research on the area and made sure there wasnt a re-occuring theme of hurricanes and Tornadoes in that region. Last Tornado to hit the area was like 1945 or some shit like that. So I guess it was due so to speak.

In anycase we gathered up some pillows, some sheets and I grabbed my leather coat (for some reason, but I think I grabbed it because its really thick) and began putting them in the laundry room. My wife and I both got dressed and grabbed our son and got him dressed too. I grabbed my cell phone just in case and I made sure to grab both car keys in the event that we needed to really get out of dodge so to speak.

I grabbed the radio and my laptop so that I can get continuous coverage of the hurricane and the emergency updates. WIFI rocks by the way. So between the radio, my laptop and my constant walking from room window to room window looking out for a funnel I regained control so to speak of the situation. With the ever so often holding my son and telling him to relax, having him have flashlight patrol and take care of his mom in the room. That was really cute. I also had to calm my wife down so its good that one of us knows how to stay calm in stressful situations. LOL....

After about 45 minutes of walking from window to window and seeing and hearing the immense thunder and lighting and heavy rain pounding on the house we finnally came out of the room. The winds had picked up but the warning for the area had lifted. I also saw that the heavy area of rain that they had called the emergency for the area for had moved along.

But just in case we stayed downstairs for the rest of the night. Kinda sorta sleeping with the radio on tunned to the local talk radio station that was providing all the updates. I also occasionally woke up and looked at the radar of the area.

Tornadoes are no joke and I have seen enough History Channel and Discovery Channel shows to know this. We lucked out and weren't hit with one in our area but it was really scary to have that kind of fear in you. Makes you realize (as if I needed reminder of this) that mother nature rules and we are just borrowing the land from her.

3 Hurricanes last year with primarily Jean and Francis affecting us in my home it makes you have a new found appreciation for Mother Nature.

In anycase say a prayer for those in South Florida that really took a hit from Wilma.