Moms Talk: Preparing Your Family for Severe Weather

Thunderstorm and tornado season is just beginning.

With the first round of storms last weekend, how do your families prepare for severe weather? 

How did you tell your children to be prepared and how do you handle fear in those situations? Do you have a specific plan for tornadoes?

Jenny Wescoat

Our only weather plan is to head to our dungeon of a basement to wait it out. Our kids think a minor thunderstorm is a great excuse to wander out of their rooms a few times, and I always debate between telling them to be tough or letting them come snuggle up.

If a storm blows up in the middle of the night, we are sometimes too tired to make little ones go back to their rooms. One great thing about living in an 80-year-old home is that I can always remind my older kids how many storms our house has successfully weathered.

Also, we have a windowless room that used to be a coal bin and another one that is a storage room in the basement, so we are pretty set for tornadoes.

Jennifer AuBuchon

Our plan is pretty similar to Jenny's. We head to the basement with a stash of flashlights and candles. Of course, that is dependent on us waking up and hearing the sirens since they always seem to happen in the middle of the night! 

Our kids also wander into our room at times if things get too loud, but generally, they don't get overworked about storms. We're lucky with that I guess!

Lisa May

We go to the basement. Of course, my husband loves thunderstorms. So, I need to get him to go downstairs.

Luckily, the children don't usually get too scared. If my youngest does at night, she will just come in our bed. 

Our electric does go out pretty often, so we always try to have candles and flashlights on hand.