By Daniella GrayShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberA Houston mom captured her quick thinking during a sudden tornado to help keep her toddler entertained with no power.
Sarah Tischler (@sarahtischler0627) shared a clip on TikTok where her 2-year-old daughter, Izabelle, is seen coloring by the glow of an unlikely light source: a breast pump.
Tischler, who is also mom to Noah, 4, and Lucas, 8 months, with partner Jake, told Newsweek that it was a normal day until she received a warning from her own mother to prepare for the incoming tornado by getting the kids in the guest bathroom.
...“I didn’t take it seriously because we do get a lot of wind warnings, but never a tornado,” Tischler said. Moments later, her phone buzzes with an alert.
“We were absolutely shocked,” Tischler said. “Between the alert and the actual tornado hitting, it was maybe only a couple minutes tops, and it happened to touchdown in my neighborhood.”
Although the Tischlers’ home and street were spared, others nearby were hit hard. The path of destruction cut straight through familiar blocks, and the community—which had also weathered significant damage during Hurricane Beryl the year before—acted quickly.
“Everyone pulled together... cutting and clearing trees, but we didn’t have power from 1:30 p.m. till right before midnight,” Tischler reported.
With three kids under the age of four—and no certainty of when electricity would return—the parents improvised.
“We try to do as much screen-free time anyway... [but] it’s constant entertaining over here,” Tischler said.
Candles weren’t an option: toddlers, babies and open flames don’t mix, especially with Izabelle’s curiosity, so the breast pump became the safest source of light within reach.
In the clip, Izabelle is happily coloring using dot markers. Tischler said she loves being “creative and messy," prompting Jake to give her the apt nickname “glitter tornado.”
Meanwhile, 4-year-old Noah made the best of the outage by turning a flashlight into his own shadow puppet show that kept his siblings laughing.
When power finally came back on near midnight—hours after the early sunset made the outage feel even longer—the family shifted focus to staying off the streets so emergency crews, utility workers and throngs of media could access the hardest-hit areas.
“There was a lot of media attention to the neighborhood with everything going on and how unusual it is in Houston and emergency crews needed priority on the road,” Tischler said. “The power has so far stayed on since the tornado, but our neighborhood loses power left and right with all the older trees we have, so it’s just another day in the life for us.”
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