The wisdom of a weather radio

So, I've told my husband I want to buy a weather radio. In the last week, our quiet little county nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains has experienced two tornadoes. Count em, two. No joke.

I remember when we moved to North Carolina from Southwestern Virginia and I experienced my first tornado drill at school. I was in the seventh grade and I had seen the movie Twister (Remember that movie? With the flying cow? I loved the line "Another cow...No, I think that's the same cow."). I remember crouching in the hallways with our heads on our knees and our hands over our heads while the teachers walked by and inspected our "the world is ending" positions and thinking that it was ridiculous to put us out in the hallways because there were HUGE glass doors at the ends of all of the hallways. I asked my mom if we really were going to get tornadoes. I was suddenly afraid we had moved from the quiet mountains to tornado alley. When she told me that there had never been a lot of tornadoes, just a small one here and there, I felt much more relaxed. And she was right.

Since that day 13 years ago, I can count on one hand the number of confirmed tornadoes that we've had. Can probably count on both hands the number of times the county has been placed under a tornado warning (That's the elevated level. The one where the news tells you to seek cover that a tornado MAY be heading your way).

But now suddenly, we're having these devastating storms. I was shocked when I came to work last week and was informed that we'd had a tornado in the county overnight. That it had done a great deal of damage. And worse, that it hadn't been far from my house. The wind and rain had woke me up but it never crossed my mind to think it might be a tornado. Or even to check the weather for warnings. I just assumed it was a big thunderstorm and went back to bed.

While a little frightening, especially after driving through the area and seeing how much damage our F1 tornado had done, I wrote it off as one of those fluke things. Then two nights later, there is a second tornado warning. Several of my friends admitted to having actually hid out in the basement or middle of their homes fearing for their safety.

So now I'm worried. I slept through two tornadoes without having any knowledge that we were even under a tornado warning. I didn't want to be in bed asleep and have a tornado hit our home and one of my children get hurt. And that is my biggest fear. So the next step is, how can I be alerted to the fact that a tornado is coming?

I get weather alerts on my phone. And in theory those could wake me up. Assuming my stupid Weather Bug actually sends me the alert. But I also get Facebook updates, text messages, emails and various other alerts on my phone that cause my phone to make noise nearly 24 hours a day. In order to get my weather alerts, I'd have to leave my phone on all night meaning I would also hear every other noise. So I don't really like that idea.

The other option suggested to me is a weather radio. Apparently the National Weather Service sets off alerts for these radios to wake people when some sort of dangerous weather is predicted in their area. I like this idea. Working as a telecommunicator/dispatcher I'm pretty familiar with the idea of some government entity setting off a pager on my device so I'm aware of a situation. At work we do it hundreds of times a day for fire fighters, rescue squads and paramedics. Alert tones sound and a message follows. After investigating weather radios more, I find them to be a reasonable price and available from my #1 online retailer, Amazon.com.

So the next step is talking to the hubby. And I did. And his response?

"From experience if your house gets hit even by a F1 and you're in the middle like you're supposed to be you're not going to survive."

And this is what he tells me to talk me out of the weather radio. Saying that even if I hear the warning and get myself and the babies into the basement in time we aren't going to survive. Yeah, that makes me feel better. I gave him the most scathing look I could muster and told him that our impending doom didn't sway me from wanting to get a radio.

And yes, he lived in Oklahoma for several years. But he clearly survived and they had numerous tornadoes. So by golly I want a weather radio. And once we get one there will probably never be another tornado warning. But that's okay. The babies will be safe. And let me tell you, its all about the babies!