Hurricane Hermine

As most Chicagoans will know, hearing "This is Jerry Taft from the National Weather Center" emit from your phone usually means a fun bout of weather is approaching. Last night I forgot that I had the ABC 7 Weather app set up for alerts and may have flipped my dinner all over the dining room. Whoops. Thanks Jerry.

While hauling the cats to the bathroom, I may have discovered that I am sorely under prepared for any type of severe weather. As a perfect example, the cats got locked in the bathroom but when I realized I don't have a battery powered radio I might have hung out in the living room watching the weather updates. (And then possibly stood on my patio during a period of creepy silence)

Some of the items I realized that I might need for the next storm include:

1) A flashlight that isn't my phone and isn't pocket size. My phone has the potential to die, and probably will because I'm awful at charging it. Plus, my pocket size flashlight spends more time lost than my keys do. 

2) A radio. Not having power means no laptop, and no tv for updates. Plus, my phone is a constant state of dead.

3) A second cat cage. Despite getting the cats almost 6 months ago, I still only have one cage. They love each other but I'm sure they'd rather not be squashed together if we have to evacuate.

Despite not having those three, somewhat major, items, I think I did pretty well for my preparations! The cats and I had plenty of food, and I was totally prepared to not have work today! But alas, I did have work and we got to pie a manager in the face and fill another manager's cube with balloons so I guess it all worked out!

So fellow transplants, what are some things you realized might be necessary during a major storm?