I Was Not Prepared For The Sioux Falls Tornado

As the clean up continues in southern Sioux Falls from the September 11 Tornado, my thoughts and prayers are with the folks who sustained major damage to property.  As of the time of this writing, there hasn't been any reported fatalities and I thank God for that.

My wife and I live only a couple blocks away from where I took this picture.  These folks have a long road to recovery ahead, but at the end of the day, it's just stuff and stuff and be repaired and replaced.  Notice the American flag is still standing to the right.

Last night around 11:15, I was on the couch watching KSFY's coverage of the storms.  The tornado warnings kept getting closer to the Sioux Falls area.  Winds began to pick up dramatically, higher than I have ever experienced.  Then the cable went out and minutes later we lost power.  I looked at the patio glass and the living room window bowing in and out to the point where they could break at any time.  I thought that now was the time to wake my sleeping wife and head to the basement.

While walking to the bedroom to wake her up, I heard the tell-tale sign of a tornado, the "freight train sound".  As we got hunkered down in the basement, it was at that moment that I realized my wife and I were not prepared for this.  The only thing I could do was hope that the building was going to stand through the storm.

My wife and I not "preppers".  We are good on security, but that's about it.  We don't have a bunker or a years worth of food and water.  We don't even have a simple "bug-out" bag.  After last night, we're not going to be caught off guard again.  A tornado touching down 300 yards from our house is a good motivator to get prepared for an out-of-the-ordinary scenario, whatever that might be.