Does every member of your family know what to do in a home emergency?
Early this month when a tornado narrowly missed my home by a quarter mile to the south and east, it got me to thinking about my family’s plan 
during an even such as this. In this particular case it was about lunch time on a week day. My wife was at work, my son was at school, about a half mile down the road, and my infant daughter was at daycare on the other side of the city. I was in my home office working but mostly keeping an eye on the news and the storm.
I’ll say up front that every one of us were lucky enough to not be directly impacted by the tornado. It came closest to me at home, and my son at school. I knew it was coming of course and when the hail started coming down hard and larger than golf balls I knew it was time to prepare for the worst.
My family knows our safe place in a weather event is my children’s jack-n-jill bathroom. No exterior walls and we even strengthened it up a 
bit when we built our house 5 years ago. We have my son’s mattress from his bed as well as my daughter’s crib mattress right there to throw in the bathroom. In this case I grabbed the crib mattress and the Chihuahua and put them in the bathroom so I could quickly get under cover when the time came.
I knew by the news and radar that the tornado should be within a mile south of me. The adventurous and curious side of me would not let me just go wait in the bathroom and see what happens. I 
had to actually watch out my office window, a perfect view of where the tornado could be coming from, until most likely the last second when I would need to run for cover. Well as I said, it missed us all, luckily. But whether it was just me or all of my family at home, we have a plan for such an event. If there were ever a fire in my home, knock on wood, I’ve discussed with everyone what to do and where to go depending on the scenario.
Have you actually had this discussion with your family? You should…and you should do it now.
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