We have three basic plans for weather.

1) Most weather, we don’t do much other than close the windows. We don’t have a lot of launch hazards; if high winds are called for we’ll secure a couple things in the back yard.

2) We do get tornados. When the sirens go off we take all the people and dogs and pile into the bathroom in the basement. Structurally it’s our best bet.

3) Our default posture for weather-related problems is to bug-in. I have a generator — it’s not big enough to run our AC but could take care of the fridge and several other things. In a hard rain during a power outage we’d need to run both sump pumps, that’s something we’d have to manage carefully. This year I added an indoor-safe propane space heater (and I do have CO detectors). Worst case in cold weather is pile everyone in one room, seal it with plastic drop cloths, and run the propane space heater but only while there is an adult on watch.

I have eyes on a larger multi-fuel generator and a transfer switch, but for now I’m holding off.

We fill gas tanks when severe weather threatens, so we can leave, siphon gas to run the generator, and so on.

If we were to lose power, water, and natural gas, it wouldn’t be long before we decided to leave.