Surviving a Storm - April 2006 Left It's Mark on Tennessee

HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. -- On April 7, 2006, a tornado left its mark on portions of this town and surrounding communities, damaging or destroying over one thousand homes and businesses. Nine people from Sumner County died that day.

A report on CBS News told this story, "12 Dead As Southern Storms Continue."

I was at work; my husband was home on the phone with his sister who lives a few miles away. They both saw local weather reports, then my husband told her, "I see a tornado coming over the hill toward you! Go to your hallway or closet now!" She did and so did he. We survived that storm without damage.

The local college suffered quite a bit of damage, as did several auto dealers. That was a scary time for us.

Our area has no tornado warning sirens. They fell into disrepair and the city chose not to keep them up. One local city alderman recently wanted to bring them back, but it didn't pass. You can read about it in this article written by Tena Lee for The Hendersonville Star News, dated March 31, 2011; titled, "'Hendersonville to give away weather radios, smoke detectors." Only two hundred weather radios are to be given away in a town that boasts a population of over 50,000 people!

When we heard of a service by local TV Channel 5, WTVF in Nashville Tennessee, 'Sign Up For Storm 5 HD WeatherCall' to receive warning calls for bad weather, we subscribed. We receive phone calls and emails alerting us to bad weather in our specific area. This is money well spent, with more than our money's worth in April.

Storms now: April 2011

I recently began keeping a 'Storm Journal':

"Severe storms two Mondays in April; now on Friday night, severe storms April 15"

"Storms last night; early morning, 1 am, and 2 am. April 20. Calls on 'severe storm warnings' 12:57 am, and 1:54 am. 'Take cover to your safe place, the call says'."

"Storms today, Easter Sunday, April 25, 'tornado warning' call on cell phone 12:38 pm; at son's house in another town, eating lunch. 'Take cover to your safe place'. Our son plotted our route home to avoid going into the path of the tornado. When we reached home the storm was gone."

"Storms for 36 hour period, Tuesday and Tuesday night; most of Wednesday, April 26 - 27. Two calls for 'flash flood warnings' on Wednesday."

We've escaped damaging storms, thanks to the warning system notifying us 'to get in our safe place' for severe storms.in our area.

Search for "WeatherCall" or other such programs for your area. The small yearly fee is worth the peace of mind to have your own 'personal' warning system for severe storms, tornado warnings and flash floods.

This is one means to help you 'survive the storm'. Stay safe!
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Sources:
Personal experience