16/04/2026
And here's our WACKY WEDNESDAY post
For this week's wacky topic, we're learning about
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Weather
We are originally from central Florida, so hurricanes are something we were born and raised encountering. Tornandos however, were something brand new to us.
When we first moved to here, we stayed in a trailer briefly before finding a nice, 4 bedroom, brick home with a fenced in yard that we moved into on March 8th of 2023.
Then came one one of the scariest moments of our lives.
I was at work 20 minutes away at a gas station the next town over. Brody was home with the kids, we had 4 at that time and our youngest turned 3 months on that day. We stayed on the phone together while the tornando sirens were going off everywhere. I had to lock the store doors from the inside because the wind was so strong it was blowing them open and water into the store. Locals from the neighborhood behind came to seek shelter and we all piled in the dry storage area(that was the center most part of the store).
The March 31, 2023 Tornado. It started southwest of Little Rock, hopped the river and stayed on the ground for 49 miles. It went a 1/2 mile from our house and just narrowly missed the Kroger we shopped at daily. We lost power for 10 days, Kroger was out for 3.
Thankfully my boss at that time is a WONDERFUL individual and brought us his generator to use so we didn't lost all our perishables.
After that day we did some SERIOUS storm-prep, and these tips can be utilized in any sort of emergency.
🔹️Have a plan in place. Know where your safe place is. Either a basement, storm shelter or center room in your house with no windows or doors. Know if there is a local public storm shelter. Practice this plan and make sure everyone knows what to do and what their responsible for grabbing.
🔹️Keep extra pillows, and blankets in your safe place and grab a mattress if you can. The extra padding will help protect you if anything falls.
🔹️Helmets and close toed shoes for everyone in the household. A helmet can be the difference between life and death when things start flying and falling. You also don't want to be trying to get through ruble in flip-flops.
🔹️Have a way to be able to see. Flashlights, extra batteries, candles, headlamps, even those little solar stake lights from the dollar store.
🔹️Make sure you can get weather notifications, either on your phone or with a radio.
🔹️Have MULTIPLE methods of cooking. Gas or charcoal grill, propane camping stove, be able to build a fire from scratch and make sure you have firesafe cookware(cast iron is my personal favorite)
🔹️Invest in a good generator. We have a Generac 8125 watt dual fuel generator. Its fairly quiet for a generator, doesn't scare the wildlife away. It conviently switches from gas to propane with the turn of a k**b.
🔹️Have an emergency stash box. Keep important paperwork, ID's, emergency cash, extra chargers, basic first aid supplies, pet food and leash. Keep this in your safe place at all times.
🔹️Have stuff to keep everyone occupied after the storm passes. Coloring books and crayons, books to read, dominos, cards, board games, puzzles.
🔹️ Find a local weather team you like. Follow their page and turn notifications on. Local teams will always give more detailed local updates then a national team. We really enjoy the guys over at the Zach Hall, James Bryant and Blaze Thomas are full of personality, keep their viewers engaged and give very informative and accurate information.
🔹️Have a stash of fresh water for everyone in the household and pets, thats rotated. If you can have the ability to store a large quantity of non potable water for flushing toilets and bathing.
🔹️Make sure you have enough non-perishable food stored for a few days for everyone too. Baby formula if you have an infant, diapers, wipes. Canned meats, crackers, peanut butter, spaghettos are all good options
Do you have a crazy weather story? Please share it with us in the comments
