Tornado Outbreak with Boo and Pence

Hi friends! Look at us - sending our weekly newsletter on time this week lol.

I’ll preface this with the fact that all humans and dogs are completely fine! But things got a little scary (but also funny) this week.

One week in advance, we knew about the potential for severe weather in Indiana on Wednesday. For those who don’t know, Beth and I are both meteorologists and are always plugged in to the weather. But even the local media and social media had been talking about the potential for a severe weather outbreak for days.

Indiana was outlined in a slight risk for severe weather a week in advance. A couple days prior to the event, we were upgraded to an enhanced risk for severe weather. On Wednesday morning Beth’s house was upgrade to a moderate risk for severe weather. That’s level 4 out of 5. And the biggest risk being for strong and long-track tornadoes.

At 6:30am, Beth called me. Listen folks…everyone who knows me knows that I do not get up early, and I do not like to be woken up early, unless it’s important. Beth told me that her house had been upgraded to the moderate risk, and that she and JT were really concerned for severe weather at their house. Beth was potentially going to get called into work during the severe weather as well.

Ultimately, they decided they thought Boo would be safer at my house, since I was in a lesser-risk area, and also do not have a two story house in which Boo seeks shelter on the top floor. So Wednesday morning, I met JT to get Boo and bring him back to my house.

Side note - apparently when Boo saw my car from across the parking lot, he started whining. Out of all the vehicles he could’ve seen, he somehow knew it was me lol.

Anyways, we got back home and Boo and Pence were happy to see each other. It was nice and sunny, so we spent some time out in the back yard.

Around lunch time, our house was now also upgraded to a moderate risk for severe weather with a higher likelihood of tornadoes. Riley and I were supposed to teach a pickleball class Wednesday evening around when the storms were forecast to hit. Initially, I told Riley he should stay home with the dogs while I instructed the class.

As the afternoon went, the threat for severe storms was looking more grim. I ended up cancelling the pickleball class in the interest of safety for our members and vehicles. I also had Riley clear out his closet in case we needed to seek shelter. That is the inner-most room in our house.

We watched the storms enter the state from Illinois and knew they were just a few hours away. You’re probably aware that Boo and Pence are both terrified of storms. Boo is even terrified of just rain sometimes. Boo’s typical way of coping involves a lot of pacing and panting, and eventually hiding in a closet. Pence’s typical way of coping involves laying on the bed, panting and shaking violently.

Because of the high likelihood of us receiving severe weather and the long duration of the event, I decided to give each dog a trazodone pill. It’s basically an anxiety pill for dogs. They’d only taken it a time or two for the vet/nail clippings previously.

When the rain drew near, Boo started his usual antics. Luckily, it only lasted for about 30 minutes before his trazodone started to kick in.

Before long, our weather radios started screaming about a tornado watch, multiple severe thunderstorm warnings, and multiple tornado warnings nearby. I kept a very close eye on the radar. A tornado had been spotted 3 counties away from us, and had been traveling right toward us. With signs that there was a decent change it was still on the ground and nearing our house, I told Riley it was time to get in the closet.

Boo was already in the closet. Riley lifted Pence off the bed and sat her next to me on the floor of the closet. Although the area was quite small, we put their leashes on them in case things were to get really bad.

The power flickered chaotically for a few minutes, but luckily it never fully went out. It was then that I realized both dogs were high as a kite lol.

Pence had a glazed over look in her eyes and was calm as a cucumber. Not shaking one bit. She probably didn’t understand why she was sitting in a closet, but she didn’t care either.

Boo was nestled under the hanging clothes and was laying on top of a pair of boots. I don’t think he had any clue what was going on lol.

At this point, we were so glad we medicated the dogs. If we hadn’t, I don’t know that we would’ve been able to get them into the shelter area, and they probably would’ve been bouncing off the walls trying to get out if we did.

We were in the closet for about 20 minutes or so. We waited for the tornadic rotation to pass over us, as well as the area of 80mph straight line winds. Once we were in the clear, Riley and I got out of the closet and started checking on friends and family who were in the path.

After we knew everyone was safe, we went back to check on the dogs. They were still in the closet! They hadn’t moved at all lol.

At first, I thought I’d just take a cute picture of them still hanging out in the closet. Until I realized…

BOO’S FACE

HE WAS HIGH AF! I was laughing so hard at the look on his face that I was WHEEZING!

We let them hang out on the floor a little while longer while we were busy in the other room. We didn’t want them trying to jump up on the bed or couch in that state lol.

All in all, we were very lucky. We did not have any damage at our house. It seems like everyone around us lost power for hours and there were many reports of trees and power lines down, and structural damage. Our county filed a disaster declaration because of the severe weather outbreak.

Beth and JT also ended up under multiple severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings and had a close call as well. Beth even said that their house was shaking so hard from the winds that some furniture on their second story moved! They didn’t sustain any damage though.

Once the storms moved into Ohio, the dogs slowly made it outside to potty and then we went to bed. We lifted Pence up on the bed, and Boo went to sleep in my closet. Both dogs were exhausted and slept for hours.

Riley’s alarm went off around 8:30am, and Boo let us know that he had slept off his drugs and that he was wide awake and ready to play! Honestly, I’m not sure if he remembers much about what happened the night before haha.

If you were in the path of these recent severe storms, we hope you are safe and were as lucky as we were!

That’s all for today, talk to you next week!

-Hannah, Riley, Boo, and Pence