Storm scare a reminder to be prepared

We have a lot of crazy weather here in southeast Alabama, like some other places, I suppose. The last part of 2015 and now into 2016, it seems our weather is flip-flopping more than usual.

A year ago this week on Feb. 24, Gov. Robert Bentley declared a weather-related State of Emergency. This year, Feb. 23, the governor once again declared a weather-related State of Emergency. The difference is that in 2015 it was for an approaching winter storm and this year was for extremely severe weather. Shelters were opened. People, including myself, spent time in centrally located bathrooms in bathtubs with pillows, pets and either helmets or large pots for head protection.

On March 4 of 2015 and on Jan. 27, 2014, declarations were made for winter weather—ice storms and snow.

The point I am making is weather is going to happen and sometimes it is severe and serious enough that preparedness should be something everyone has planned in advanced and not something to rush about doing at the last minute. Panic may set in sometimes, but keeping an eye and ear out for different types of weather is important and being prepared for such occasions is critical.

How many of you were prepared for the “just in case” scenario our entire state was facing last Tuesday night and Wednesday morning? How many of you were scrambling to figure out how to keep yourself and your family safe as night fell and you began to hear what might be headed to the Wiregrass during sleeping hours, or perhaps you were in an area that tornado sirens were actively wailing?

I have been a weather buff my entire life. I am certainly far from being a meteorologist, but I’ve studied the weather, can read forecasters’ conversations and read weather maps and do a pretty good job at interpretation. I love it. I am one of those people that would jump at the chance to stand as witness—completely protected of course with a 100 percent guarantee of safety—to a tornado or a hurricane. I have been through a few of both, including the March 1, 2007 tornado in Enterprise that destroyed the high school, killed eight students, a private citizen and injured dozens more.

During the Enterprise disaster, my son and I were headed back into Enterprise from Dothan—where I taught school at the time—trying to get home before inclement weather set in. The tornado was huge, in front of us, trying to lift my car. The radio said a large tornado had hit downtown Enterprise and the high school. Our home at that time was a street-and-a-half over from the high school. The monster twister jumped our street before coming back down on the other street and wiping out the high school, nearby homes and businesses. Somehow, my son and I made it to our home to thankfully find my husband and daughter standing in the yard and our house okay. We spent the rest of the day and evening helping get kids out of the high school and accompanying two injured students loaded on plywood onto a car hood and a pickup truck to hospitals.

Another storm memory involves one of several hurricanes in my life. The eye of Hurricane Opal went over the town of Elba, where we were living on Oct. 4, 1995. We were not prepared as no one thought it would intensify to a Category Four storm and then come ashore near Pensacola as a Category Three, keeping its sustained wind speeds well into southern Alabama. Winds as high as 110 mph were recorded where we lived, which happened to be about the highest point in Elba—a good place for floods, not so much for hurricanes and tornadoes. Anyway, we waited too long to leave and spent that night—me pregnant with triplets—hunkered down in a tiny closet in the center of our home with our beloved Cocker Spaniel Honey.

We prayed. We thought we would die that night. After hours of hearing tree after tree hit our house, it became quiet. We praised God we were still alive and then carefully opened the closet door, fully expecting to not have a house around us. We did. We praised God for His mercy once again.

I had the chance to fly with the Hurricane Hunters many years ago and decided not to do so at the last minute. It was a dream of mine to fly with that squadron, but I had a bigger dream and that was to be a mom. Our triplets were born at six months, but did not survive and we were told I could no longer carry a baby. Truly, I was afraid the adoption agency would think I was a quack if I flew into a hurricane, so I nixed those plans for the sake of motherhood. I’d jump at the chance now, without hesitation. My children are grown.

There are so many more storm tales to tell, but storm stories aside, please be prepared at all times for bad weather. If you are from this area then you know our weather here can change very quickly from good to bad and vice versa. If you are new to the area, see previous sentence.

If you don’t have a safe room, go to the most interior room of your home, like a closet or a bathroom with no windows. If possible take a mattress with you to put over you. If the mattress is not possible, then use lots of pillows. Bike helmets and football helmets are a very good idea for protecting your head from serious injury. Keep your shoes—preferably not flip-flops— and clothes on during the storm. Have your medicines with you, bottled water, non-perishable food, a fully charged cell phone with a weather alert app on it or a storm radio, a battery operated radio, flashlight, first aid kit, your wallet and other such things with you in your safe place. If you live in a mobile home or other unstable structure, go to a shelter.

I had no bike helmet and no football helmet, but I did have my grandmother’s very heavy-duty 50-plus year old restaurant soup pot. Yes, a soup pot. It fit my head perfectly and I believe nothing can penetrate it! It made a great helmet, even if my Chihuahua, Pomeranian and Dachshund thought “Mommy” looked a little weird. Their shaking bodies were perfectly fine as long as they had skin-contact with the pot-headed human—me—and comfy pillows in the bathtub as we waited out the storms.

Alabama tends to have severe weather both in the spring and in the fall, but generally, during all seasons. According to the National Climatic Data Center, Alabama, along with Kansas, has the most reported EF5 tornadoes than any other state. An EF5 is the most powerful and destructive and can literally destroy whatever is in its path down to the foundation and in some case suck the foundation up. Remember Tuscaloosa and other cities in April 2011?

Don’t wait until the next round of storms is marching toward the area. Make a plan now.

Don’t be caught unprepared. And, get a soup pot!

Jan Murray is a staff writer for The Southeast Sun and Daleville Sun-Courier. The opinions of this writer are her own and not the opinion of the paper. She can be reached at (334) 393-2969 or by email at [email protected].