Eton hand crank and solar weather radio with flashlight and USB hook-up

In the week before we moved to Tennessee there was a rash of tornadoes that devastated cities throughout the region. We're not in the direct path of "Tornado Alley", but we're pretty close and Tennessee isn't wanting for more tornadoes. Part of the reason we decided to look east of Nashville for land was because west of Nashville typically gets hit worse during tornado season. That doesn't mean we're not at risk, however. 

When we saw on the news that tornadoes were picking up in the Knoxville area it got me worried and I started to wonder how we would know if a tornado came through in the middle of the night (or even in the middle of the day). Tornadoes aren't like Hurricanes where you have a couple days (or even weeks) of warning time. With tornadoes your response time is typically measured in minutes. I hadn't given it much thought, but we were a week away from being isolated in the middle of forest (literally) and we wouldn't have a great way to be notified if the weather turned and a tornado warning were issued. That's when I learned about weather radios.