The Alert Pipeline running · unarmed
the sirens answer to city dispatch — this answers to us
NWS warnings are storm-based polygons; Sugar Creek's sirens fire at city discretion. So the
house checks for itself: a poller on the hub asks
api.weather.gov/alerts/active?point=<our rooftop> every 45 seconds and
drives the Sonos announcer by tier. It's deployed and watching now — log-only until the
word is given, then a daytime test before it ever speaks at night.
| Trigger | The house does | Wakes us? |
|---|---|---|
| Tornado Warning polygon contains the house | Every room, full volume, repeated — canned audio, zero dependencies | Yes — the only automation allowed to |
| Tornado Warning within ~10 mi, or a Watch on our county | One moderate announce, kitchen | Not at night |
| Severe T-storm over us, tornado-possible tag | Normal-volume notice | No |
| Other warnings over us | Log + dashboard | No |
- Latency, honestly: issuance → speakers in ~15–90 seconds. Slower than phone WEA by moments; faster and infinitely more targeted than discretionary sirens. Its job is waking the house with words.
- The offline floor: a Midland WR400 SAME weather radio (~$90, the current DSP-receiver model) on battery — the only layer that survives an internet outage. It over-alerts (county granularity); that's its nature. Place it near the shelter door — reception inside six sides of concrete is poor.
The Weather Station
local data for tornado country
WeatherFlow Tempest — $349, no subscription. Multicasts full readings onto the LAN every ~3 seconds (official local HA integration), detects lightning to ~25 miles, has no moving parts to die in hail, and keeps reporting when the internet is down — which in this county is exactly when it matters. Known flaw, accepted: the rain gauge undersells violent downpours; fine for trends and cook planning.
Beyond storms it earns its keep daily: the mini-split and whole-house fan automations key off its outdoor temp and dew point, the exterior lights can use its actual lux, and the pit gets wind and ambient for run-sheet planning.
Value alternative: the Ecowitt Wittboy GW2001 bundle (~$200) — the local-HTTP darling, solid HA support; lightning costs a $56 add-on sensor and reads coarser. The Tempest earns its premium on lightning and the native UDP feed; the Ecowitt earns its price.
Power
the outages already voted · UPS now, generator ladder later
CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD (pure sine — the hub's PSU requires it) for kara, wired into NUT → HA for graceful shutdown and outage telemetry, plus an APC BE600M1 ($100) for the ONT and router — network gear sips 15–30W, so the internet and the alert pipeline stay alive for hours through exactly the storms that cause the outages (its USB port also charges a phone in a pinch). Optional add, not replacement: a 12V DC router UPS (~$65–100) in series — no inverter loss, more runtime per dollar — if the ONT/router take 12V barrel input; check plugs before buying. (Hub-UPS peer alternative: APC BR1500MS2 ~$230 — pick by price on the day.)
| Rung | What | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Next year | Dual-fuel inverter generator + Eaton BR interlock kit + inlet — fully DIY, covers blower, network, kitchen, bedrooms, and the mini-split (whose inverter compressor soft-starts on a modest generator where central AC never could) | ~$1.5–2k |
| Someday | Natural-gas standby + critical-loads subpanel (Spire is the gas utility) — automatic, unattended, runs as long as the mains do | ~$8–12k |
| Noted | The Rinnai's freeze protection dies with power — the generator protects the plumbing too. Its WiFi module (RWM200) is cloud-only; low priority. | — |
Water & Air
silent failures, made loud
- Leak sensors ×3–4 (~$15–20 ea): water heater, laundry, under sinks — the best $/disaster-averted ratio in the whole bill. Plus a $12 freeze sentinel for the mini-split line set.
- Radon, watched properly: the mitigation system works — until its fan dies silently sometime in year seven. A RadonEye RD200 (~$180) gives hourly readings over local BLE, and a $20 metering plug on the fan turns a wattage drop into an immediate announcement. The manometer stays as the visual backup. (Bonus: if the whole-house fan ever depressurizes hard enough to tug soil gas, the RadonEye is the referee.)
The Shelter
light at 2am is not a gadget — it's morale
Layer 1 — light that turns itself on: a UL 924 twin-head emergency fixture with LiFePO4 batteries (~$40), plugged into a basement outlet. These are engineered to float-charge for years and auto-illuminate the instant power dies — the exact 2am moment, no fumbling. (Skip the NiCd versions; LiFePO4 holds charge and lives 8–10 years.) Layer 2 — the grab light: a Goal Zero Lighthouse Mini Core ($50) — with one honest correction from the audit: no consumer lantern at this tier documents safe indefinite float charging (they're all standard Li-ion; it's an industry blind spot, not a Goal Zero flaw). The house's answer is better than chemistry anyway: the lantern lives on a Zigbee smart plug and HA tops it up one day a week — always charged, never cooked. Plus two headlamps on Eneloop AAs (~$25), which genuinely do hold ~70% charge after years untouched. Layer 3: a $12 dark-activated nightlight on the shelter stairs, because hands are full of baby.
The crate — actually gasketed, no modifications
Ready-to-go options with real seals (gasket evidence or IP rating, not "durable" marketing), sized for the load. Config either way: bulk tote(s) + one steel can — because a gasket stops water but not a motivated mouse, and anything food-scented (the formula) plus docs and meds lives in metal.
| Tier | Model | Why | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best | YETI LoadOut GoBox 60 | ~60qt, certified IP67 — genuinely submersible, buy-once-forever. (Runner-up: Pelican Cargo BX55S, MIL-STD rain/dust tested, ~$320.) | ~$300 |
| Value | IRIS WeatherPro Gasket Box, 62.4qt | True compression gasket + six latches; sold as a 3-pack (~$32/each) — two for the kit, one spare. (Sterilite's gasket tote is cheaper but reviews report seal lottery; Husky/Ridgid "pro" totes are overlap lids, not gaskets — skip.) | $95 / 3 |
| Docs · meds · formula | Steel .50-cal ammo can | Rubber-gasketed, draw-latch, and the only truly rodent-proof body on this list — the formula, meds, and paper go here. | ~$20–38 |
The config: two IRIS 62qt totes + one ammo can ≈ $95 total (or the single YETI + can at ~$330 if buy-once wins). Restocked twice a year at the DST changes — water dates, formula use-by, diaper size, meds, battery-bank charge.
| Group | Contents |
|---|---|
| Light & comms | Lighthouse Mini · headlamps + spare Eneloops · Midland ER310 crank/USB radio · phone battery bank (charge-checked at rotation) |
| Walter | Ready-to-feed 2oz nursette bottles + sealed sterile nipples (in the steel can — food scent draws rodents) — RTF is the CDC-preferred choice for young infants (sterile, no water needed mid-shelter); rotated on the use-by date · diapers/wipes one size up · any prescribed meds · a comfort swaddle |
| Water & food | Bottled water (1 gal/person, 6-month swap) · shelf-stable snacks |
| Adults | Meds list + spares · old glasses · whistle · sturdy shoes · work gloves |
| Docs | ID/insurance copies · USB with document photos · small cash |
Feeding supplies in the crate matter more here than in a generic kit: a shelter stay is also a feeding-interval clock. The crate keeps that clock unremarkable.