extreme fear of weather in ds with asperger's

[muldey]

Hi!My ds,who is 10,is having a hard time right now.Hurricane Irene is supposed to hit early in the morning here(we're in RI) and he is terrified.He hardly slept last night,and I'm sure tonight will be even worse.He's constantly checking the weather on my computer,and last night to try to reassure him I showed him the evacuation route,and where we would go(high school in the next town).He stayed up until after 2:30am,talking to me about it,until he finally fell asleep from exhaustion.He won't sleep in his room,or even on the couch which is in one half of our double parlor(the other half is my bedroom).He has to be with me,in my bed.He brought in all his favorite action figures(sonic the hedgehog is very uncomfortable when you roll over onto him lol!) to keep them safe.He said tonight he even wants 13 yo dd to sleep with us,so she'll be safe(she wants no part of that lol,leave her computer,tv and ipod in her room?I don't think so lol!).He's also worried about our kitties and the gerbils.I keep telling him everything will be ok,this house is over 100 years old,and has been through worse.I answer all his questions as best I can,and just try to comfort him.I explained we have enough food for a few days,enough water,my dad and my mom have gas in their cars in case we have to leave,we have flashlights and batteries,and all the cell phones,ipods,his ds,and laptops will be fully charged.That seemed to comfort him a little bit.Any other ideas?He is ok right now,happily playing a racing game,but I know he will start getting upset as the day goes on.Thanks!

[Emmeline II]

I don't have anything to offer other than to keep him off the internet until it passes--have you or your dh as the "family person in charge of monitoring the weather."

[muldey]

That's basically what I did,and he was fine.Plus he slept holding his flashlight.We only lost power for a short time,we were very lucky.He was actually excited when he looked outside and saw the huge tree behind our neighbor's house had fell on their house!Thankfully no one was hurt,and the house only has minor damage.There were 3 cars in the backyard,2 older ones and one brand new one.Of course the brand new one is the one that the back window was smashed.Our fence was destroyed when the tree cutters came,it was the only way they could get to the tree.He looks at the fence and the pieces of the tree and says "look mama that's where the tree fell!Isn't that cool?" lol.