Preps, Knowledge, and Peace of Mind During the Disaster: My tornado outbreak story from April 27, 2011

The day was April 27, 2011. We were pounded by tornado after tornado here in the south. I live in East Ridge, TN and just a few hundred yards from Rinngold, GA. Rinngold was hit hard enough to make national news and many people lost their lives that day. I was at work while Tara and the newborn were at home. At 10:00am a group of us were standing outside at work on break when the first storm hit. A small tornado came right over our building and it was over before we even had time to react. Luckily, it was very small and only knocked about a dozen trees down and we all escaped without harm. I immediately looked at the weather on my cell phone and saw that the potential for more extremely violent storms was fairly good. For the next couple of hours I kept a close eye on the situation.

At around noon I decided that work could kiss my ass. It was time to get home to protect my family. I didn't even ask the boss man permission to leave. I told him that these storms were only going to get worse and I was going to leave before that happened. I also advised him he should release everyone else to go home too before another tornado hit. I arrived home and grabbed the bug out bag; filled my 5 gallon collapsible water container and made sure the radio had a charge and placed all of that at the mouth of the basement. I have a nice little entrance there my return air goes under the house which is under ground and as soon as I go in and turn left I have a nice little "room" protected by a massive boulder. I did add a hatchet and crowbar to the stash at the last minute. The hatchet now lives in the bug out bag. I thought, if my house did get hit by a tornado at least I would have some tools to help dig ourselves out. Though I am pretty confident that my tornado safe area is safe, I cannot help what may block my exit-way in the event that a tornado takes my house.

At around 1:40 p.m., the local weather man began warning us of a potential tornado that was likely to hit near my house. We strapped the baby into his car seat for protection, grabbed his diaper bag (which we had packed with hot water and formula) and headed downstairs. I turned the TV up loud enough to hear it under the house and we all huddled up and waited out the storm. The baby seemed to think it was fun, Tara was very nervous, as any new mother with a baby would be during a possible deadly storm and as for me, I don't normally do well with storms but I knew I had to keep calm for my family which seemed to come extremely easy to me at this moment and I will explain why later. We didn't lose power during that tornado so I could still hear the TV. After about 35 minutes under the house, we could hear the weather man tell us we were safe, at least for now.

Stick suck 6-7" into ground

I knew we would probably see more tornadoes because the storm that had hit Alabama so hard was moving towards us. I put some lawn chairs in our safe zone just to add some comfort. I had left everything else in place underneath the house. At around 3:15 p.m. the local weather man was warning us to head for cover again so we went back down into our safe zone and waited out the storm. It was fairly quiet down there but I could see through the vents in my foundation and it was storming very hard. The radio station lost power. On the radio, we heard the weather man say "There is something moving right over East Ridge in the Camp Jordan area. Get-----(silence-------." The Camp Jordan area is very specific and small. My house in in it. We heard trees snapping and the power went out. That is when the charged radio went into action. The local radio stations were streaming the weather on their stations. After waiting it out until we heard it was safe we walked out to assess the damage. We had a tree down over our carport; luckily it didn't damage it. It kill get the fence though. Another massive tree fell across the road and took out the power lines. The neighbors had some trees down. I found a stick lodged about 6-7" into the ground from the high-speed tornadic winds. We were luckily. Just right down the road, across the state line, a hell had broke loose. A motel collapsed, a full fast food restaurant was demolished, homes were destroyed, the reports kept coming in and they were gruesome. We were not out of the water yet though. We went back under the house three or four more times that night. Vehicles could not make it down our road.

Big tree that knocked down our power lines. I but the trunk was 4ft in diameter.

The morning after was busy. Chainsaws were ripping and all of the men were pulling debris to the sides of the road. Neighbors came together and made our road passable. I was prepared with a generator so we could take coffee breaks and keep the bare essentials in my house running. We went only four days without electricity but some went for weeks. The whole event was a learning experience. I learned that I do have a sufficient skill set to get by in a localized disaster situation. I also realized that I needed to take my fuel stock piles more seriously. Those generators don't run on water. When I look back on that dreadful night I realize that my preps and knowledge helped me to stay calm when I knew that my house could be the next one to be thrown into the sky.

The next few nights days and nights were interesting. Most of the people living on my road were trapped on the road unless they wanted to take a very long walk. Emergency vehicles couldn't even make it down the road. Since I had a generator I could turn the TV on when the local news came on. Looters were becoming a problem in the area. I always have a firearm ready to go but I posted more up in various spots around the house. I also stayed outside a lot. That showed any potential looters that this street was not vacant even though it looked like it was by day 2. Most of the neighbors had walked out to go stay with friends or family. I think it was on night 3 that it got interesting. By then the road was passable but power was still out. A black man in his older twenties knocked on a door two houses down from me. He claimed that he had been beaten up down near the railroad tracks and walked up the road for help. The homeowner told him that he would call the police for him but he needed to stay on the porch. He called the police and by the time the man got back to the door the victim was gone. It turned out that he was a looter and knocked to make sure the house was empty.

Not all preppers are tin hat wearing, paranoid, dooms day seeking people. We are generally normal people that just understand that shit happens and it is our responsibility to take care of our selves when the it does happen. Governments on all levels do not have the man power to support everyone and most people will need help because they accept being herded through life like sheep. Everyone needs to have an emergency plan and some fundamental supplies. More importantly, everyone needs to understand how to survive. That includes knowledge, skills and metal stability; the prior two help with the latter.

ZS Recourses

• Emergency Documentation Template by ZS-If you to not have an emergency documentation package your NEED to get one. I have created this free template for you to just download and fill out.
• The Bug Out Bag-This an ever-changing list of items for your bug out bag. This is for a Large b.o.b. I will make lists for various sized bags later. The Bug Out Bag is one of the first things any survivalist should take care of.
• State by State ZS Corps-This is a list of state branches of ZS. There are many states still available and need an administrator. Let me know if you are interested. These are facebook pages that will connect ZS readers on a local level. These could be very handy in a disaster granted you have facebook access.

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