What do you do in

   a “Code Red Alert”?

When a “Code Red Alert" comes on your phone and tells you to get to a place of safety immediately…  have you thought of what you should bring with you?

And how much time you should take to find your “stuff”?

I didn’t think of this during last year’s tornadoes here in the Cannon Falls area.  When that alert came over my phone I had just finished popping a bowl of popcorn.

So I grabbed it… my cellphone… and a flashlight and headed down the stairs into the cellar.  

Checking on your neighbors…

It was some time later when neighbors started driving by to see if I was OK.  Trees were partially blocking the road but they got around them.

When they heard I was in the cellar I think they decided that since we probably kept some wine down there…  I would be OK!   

Another Code Red…

Recently we got another Code Red tornado alert warning and since I had just written a recap in my column of all the things that happened in last year’s event I knew more about what could go wrong,

I headed for the cellar and when I got there I realized that if a tornado tore off the first floor of my house, I really should have my billfold with my driver’s license with me so I wouldn’t have to file for a new one.  So I ran up the stairs to get it.

When I got back down in the cellar I thought I really should have my laptop too,  I didn’t want to lose the data in it.  So I ran back upstairs again.

Then I realized I didn’t have anything to sit on so I ran to get a folding stool.

I think I remembered other things I wanted but I kept wondering if a tornado might hit just as I was running up and down the stairs!

Settling in for the duration…

When I finally settled down in the cellar - I got on Facebook and saw the Cannon Falls police had posted about the storm and I told them where I was…. so somebody would know!

But what if I didn’t have any “Wi Fi” working?  I’d want a book.  And a flashlight. ( Like when I was a kid and was supposed to be sleeping under the blankets!)

  And now I realized that although I had some canned vegetables on the shelves down there… they weren’t home canned… and I would need a can opener.  

And if you couldn’t get to the “plumbing"…  you’d need a container of some kind, right?  

And remind yourself to sweep for cobwebs more often too!

This is getting way too detailed.

I’m curious as to what you would take 

into your “safe” room?