3am Wake-Up Call

I'm dreaming I'm at a pool with a bunch of friends and the kids and they have the radio on very loud. It is very annoying. It keeps getting louder and louder until it is wailing like a siren. Oh wait. That is a siren. I pop up in bed and look out the window. Now, I'm not completely sure what I thought that was going to do since it is pitch black. I do figure out that it is windy and raining. Bill is still dreaming that he hears a siren and is not moving. I turn the TV on, yell to him to wake up. I go to the phone to call my mom, no dial tone. Odd since we have power. Thinking back now if I would have stayed on the line I would have figured out that the city was broadcasting the tornado warning over the reverse 911 system. Dick, Andre, or any of the other weather guessers in town are no where to be found. It can't be that serious then, right? I race around pulling on odd clothes..... a bra under my PJ top, a pair of khaki capris, and sandals. All I can think later is that if all I was left with were the clothes on my back, why didn't I pick something different! I tell Bill to put the cats in the closet (2 of the 3 were in bed with us). He says no, if something weird is going to happen they will run to the basement. Before I can turn around Bill has Reagan and is heading downstairs. I go in and grab Nolan, his blanket and an extra paci. He was just sitting there as if to say, what the hell is going on! I grab my cell and call my mom, who is (not oddly) wide awake and tell her to go to the basement. The four of us hang out on the couch downstairs for, what seems like, an hour. It was really only 10 minutes. We were joined by all three cats, which made me even more nervous. Bill ran up to get the kids milk and our computer since we don't have a TV downstairs. By the time we logged on, NOAA had cancelled the tornado warning. They said there was one spotted NE of Euclid, putting it out over the lake. I'm not expert, but I think tornados that form over the water are called water spouts. In the 10 minutes we were downstairs I kept thinking about things I'd like to grab and save, but there was no way I was leaving Bill and the kids. I also thought about how unprepared we are for a natural disaster. We didn't used to be. Come on, I married a man who took survivalist 101 for pre-k. In the near future I'll be packing a box with some necessities for the family....water, diapers, powdered milk, captain morgan. You know, the basics. I'm sure everyone and their brother is doing the same in Eastlake this morning so I'll wait a week or so. So we woke up two sleeping 15 month olds, 3 cats and hauled ass downstairs for a water spout. Oh well. Better safe than sorry. Here's what happened.... Sirens sound for overnight tornado warning A tornado warning was issued for western Lake County and northeastern Cuyahoga County early Wednesday morning, according to the National Weather Service.The warning was issued at 2:46 a.m. and later canceled at 3:10, said Will Kubina, a meteorologist with the NWS at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.No tornados actually touched down, Kubina said.“The reason for the warning was a very strong thunderstorm about 10 miles offshore,” he said, explaining the storm was exhibiting characteristics like “hook echoes,” which are specific to tornadic storms.“When the storm came on shore, it got ripped apart and diminished,” Kubina said.Locally, emergency sirens were sounded at 2:52 a.m. by the Lake County Emergency Management Agency, according to a release issued by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.Spotters reported penny-size hail in Eastlake and Willowick, Kubina said.