Prepared?...Yes..a little.. not really..okay no

My school district just cancelled school tomorrow. That never really affects me, because as an administrator I am expected to be there...except tomorrow. Central admin closed as well. There was plenty of coverage on "Sandy" (by the way I would like to suggest that anything that has an opportunity to cause immense damage should be given a name much less well..innocent or sweet...like Athena or Thor...(my apologies to those thus named). My girlfriend and I made light of the fact that people were rushing out to get bottled water, snacks, etc. We joked that between the two of us we could probably come up with 8 double "A" batteries if we checked our t.v. remotes...and several half empty (full..for the optimist reader) bottles of water if we checked our cars. But as the day wore on and the news reports came in, I started to worry. I have lived in Japan (earthquakes, typhoons)...Colorado (flash floods, boulders breaking off sides of the mountain, hail the size of a small goat), Gulf of Mississippi (serious hurricanes, flooding) and still never appreciated the need to prepare. The year my daughter was born in Japan, in fact the day after she was born, Typhoon Cailtin hit Okinawa. My husband was called on base and I was there with a newborn in our very small Japanese apartment...alone. The storm beat the sides of the house, picked up the front door of the apartment off it's track but never completely tore it off. Scary experience. Still after all that..I fight the urge to run out and stock up, to fill my bathtub, or to make sure I have candles in the house. I blame it on the Berkshire experience. We have some tough snow storms. The power has gone out..for days. But all in all, we do not experience the horror that some areas do. I am grateful but not being prepared today made me feel...ashamed. What's the harm in being over prepared? So what if I never open that can of SPAM? I hope this storm does little damage and people are safe and cared for. Next time, I will make sure that at the very least I take more care and time to prepare for emergency weather. Stay safe.