Have you been thru a tornadoe, How do I overcome the fear of tordadoes?

United States
March 28, 2007 5:03pm CST
Well let me update you on my past. I used to live in California where there are earthquakes every once and a while. I've been thru about 4. If you remember the Northridge earthquake. Well lets just say I was about a block and a half from the center of it. Now that was scary, but I tell you my fear of tordadoes if far worse than that earthquake. The funny thing is that even when I lived in California, I had fears of tornadoes then. Now tell me that sounds kind of pathetic, dont you think. Well now I live in Florida. The panhandle to be exact. Not very man tordadoes hit here, but they do happen some times. Now since I have been here, and let me say, I have been here for 1 year and a couple of months. We probably had about 20 tornadoe warnings. And 0 hitting ground. Although these are facts it doesnt change my fear. You see the first warning was issued in the middle of the night and at that time my daughter who is now 14 months was only 9 months at the time. Well she was sound asleep and my husband was as well. Needless to say I woke them both up. My husband was like whats going on. He didnt quite understand my fear until that night. That was the first time he had seen me shaking. I mean I was shaking from head to toe. I didnt know what to do. Well I tell him to grab the baby. I had her to him and then I go to our room I lift up our Queen size mattress from the bed and I drag it to the hallway. Assuming that is the best way to go. My husband says what are you doing? Well of course I am not thinking straight at the time, you see we have a small bathroom, there is no way I would have got that mattress into the bathroom. My husband decides he is going to check outside if there is an actual tornadoe. I tell him dont you take the baby out there. He said well if there is one then we would hear it by now. Well, im shookin up and I never been in a tornadoe or near one. So as you can see I had no idea what to expect. Well he goes outside and he said the sky is clear it is not even thundering, lighting or anything. So I told him well there is a warning for something. Well just when I said that the weather channel said the tornadoe warning was cancelled. Well I felt as if that 3 or 4 minute period lasted a lifetime. As you can see I remember detail by detail as if it just happened. When I think about tornadoes coming my heart starts pounding. I dont know how to over come my fear. Now you can imagine there has been several warnings after that. I do try to control myslef a bit more. I dont know what to do. Can any one help me? If you have been thru one, can you tell me the best thing to do? If you know someone who has been can you tell me what they did to survive if they did survive? Most importantly what do I do with my baby? You know those straps like a back pack or front pack that you put babies in, well my first thought since that night would be to put her in there, would that be a safe thing to do? Someone please give me some advice on what to do. I have been thinking of calling a weather specailist, give them details on how my house is shaped and ask them what do I do in the event of a tornadoe hitting our home. Is that too dramatic? As you can see I am terrified of tornadoes and I dont know what to do about overcoming the fear of it, nor do I feel safe in my home if one were to come. My dad lives in a trailor and on stormy nights I ask him to bring his wife and my sisters, he never does, he says Im crazy to be this way, but like I said I really cant help it. I need some help, so what do you say....?
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