Tornadoes?

Last night was our little family's first experience of dealing with tornadoes (okay, the possibility of tornadoes) here in Texas. As you probably know, it is "tornado season" down the tornado belt of the nation of which we are a part (unfortunately). Last night around 4:00 am, Shawn and I woke up to the most crazy weather we have EVER seen. It was raining harder than you can believe, the thundering and lightnings were constant and right on top of each other, the wind was blowing crazy hard ... this morning I'm surprised that the neighborhood isn't littered with debris. We laid in bed listening to the storm and as there was a tornado watch out (which may have been a warning at that point, along with flash flood warnings, wind advisories, etc.) I was just waiting for the tornado sirens to go off. Sure enough, a few minutes into our vigil, they did turn on and I was pleasantly surprised to hear how loud they were (they aren't super loud when they test them) - we could easily hear them over the storm. So, we grabbed Mia and the dog and some pillows and headed down to our designated tornado safe spot (the closet underneath the stairs). We waited until the sirens turned off and the storm calmed (and calmed long enough that we were certain we weren't in the "eye of the storm") then checked the weather online and decided the worst of it had passed and then we went back to bed. I'm sure this is the first of many treks down underneath the stairs. I just hope that they all end up like this one.