About Tornado Safety...
How can I keep myself safe?
The most important thing is to protect yourself from flying and falling debris. A storm shelter is your best choice, if you have one. If you have a basement, go there and get under something sturdy to shelter you from falling debris (for instance, a strong workbench, or a staircase).
If you have no basement or storm shelter, go to an interior room without windows on the first floor of your home. Bathrooms are a good choice because the plumbing reinforces the walls. Closets are also a good choice since they normally have no windows. The idea is to put as many walls between you and an approaching tornado as possible; flying debris can penetrate exterior walls.
Stay away from windows entirely! It used to be thought that opening windows would reduce a tornado's damage to a home. This is no longer considered to be good advice: leave windows alone completely and get to a safe place immediately.
If you live in a mobile home, it should be abandoned; seek shelter in a neighboring frame home or, better yet, a storm shelter. If you are in a motor vehicle in an populated area, do not try to drive away from a tornado; abandon your vehicle and seek shelter nearby.
If you are traveling in a rural area, drive away from the tornado at a right angle to its path. If caught in the open, get down in a sheltered low spot, and cover your head with your arms; hang on to something if it is available.
If you are at school or work, your school or workplace should have an approved tornado safety plan, which you should follow. If no such plan exists, complain to someone that a plan needs to be developed!! Knowing what to do in a specific situation means you are less likely to panic and do something dangerous without realizing it. Have a plan within your family about what you would do, and follow it exactly, including where you will go if you are separated.
If you hear a tornado warning, you should seek immediate shelter and not waste precious seconds to see if it is true for you; wasting a few minutes in a safe place once in awhile is better than becoming another tornado statistic!
Should I seek shelter under a bridge overpass if I am in my car during a tornado?
It is not advisable to seek shelter under a bridge. This is due to increased wind speeds that result from a phenomenon known as Bernoulli's principle, which states that air moving through a constriction or over a curved surface will undergo a pressure drop and an increase in wind speed. This translates to higher potential for injury from flying tornado debris.
Three people lost their lives under or near overpasses during the May 3, 1999 tornado outbreak. Two were up "under the girders" taking shelter from the storm. This idea may have been perpetuated by a well-circulated video from a weak tornado in Kansas. Unfortunately, the circumstance of the infamous video was that the overpass did not directly experience the tornadic circulation of the weak tornado. On May 3rd, at least two overpasses were directly hit by an F5 tornado. People who tried to take shelter there faced severe injuries; nearly all of them were blown out and two of them died (a third fatality took place when a car parked under an overpass was thrown by another tornado). One woman's body was not found for several days, as it was buried under a large amount of debris. For more information on overpasses and safety in your car we recommend the following: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/papers/overpass.html
Where should I go if I know a tornado is coming?
The best place to be during a tornado is in a storm shelter. However, given that approximately 98% of all tornadoes are rated F3 or less at their strongest point, a ground floor interior room (or basement under a heavy object) of a well-built frame home will generally provide adequate shelter. Note that in an F3 tornado, the roof and outside walls will be removed from the house meaning that additional protection from a mattress, pillows, blankets, etc. is wise. Even in an F5 tornado the damage varies; damage surveys generally show that about 15% of the damage path of an F5 tornado is either F4 or F5 level damage. The rest of the path is F3 or less. Most injuries and fatalities result from flying debris striking the person. For more information on how structures are affected by winds in a tornado, see the BPAT report mentioned below.
Can buildings be made strong enough to withstand a tornado's strong winds?
Following the May 3, 1999 outbreak, FEMA sent a team including forensic engineers to study the damage homes and businesses sustained from violent tornadoes. The Building Performance Assessment Team (BPAT) published their final report, "Midwest Tornadoes of May 3, 1999." The report is available from FEMA by calling 1-888-565-3896 to request Publication 342, or you can download the full report [PDF 6.7 MB] electronically The BPAT report includes recommendations which can be made to both existing and new structures to increase their resistance to strong winds.
What weather alert system do you recommend for my home or business?
NOAA
Weather Radio
is a direct, 24-hour broadcast from the NOAA National Weather Service. Most
radios designed to receive the signal can be set to silently monitor the broadcast
for watches and warnings and newer radios can be programmed to alert for one
to as many as twenty counties.
We rely on NOAA Weather Radio here at the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory to keep our own employees safe. Most of our employees also have these radios in their homes and many of us take portable versions of the radios with us on trips.
If you run a business, it may be worthwhile to contact your local emergency manager. This person should be located within your city or county government and is sometimes called a civil defense director. A few communities around the country have alternate radio systems that include NOAA Weather Radio warnings but are also used for local communication during severe weather. Van Wert, Ohio, is one of these cities and is an excellent example of how a warning system can prove vital in saving lives. The system had been in place a few months when when a tornado threw a car into a movie theater. But the theater manager knew a tornado was coming and had evacuated the theater.
Is there a special-needs weather radio?
Yes, the special-needs NOAA Weather Radio was designed to adapt to the needs of the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. The radio receives National Weather Service warnings, watches, forecasts, and other hazard information 24 hours a day.
What is OK-Warn?
OK-WARN is the Oklahoma Weather Alert Remote Notification program for emergency weather/situation notification service via alphanumeric pagers and/or E-mail addresses. The hazardous weather pager program gives deaf and hard-of-hearing Oklahoman's better access to important severe weather information. The success of a pilot program in 2001 led to the creation of OK-WARN, which now provides life-saving messages about tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, winter storms, flash floods, river floods and high wind warnings from local National Weather Service offices to deaf and hard-of-hearing people who sign up for the service. The database in the OK-WARN program only contains information for Oklahoma.
Related links:
- Tornado Safety...What you need to know NOW!
- Special-needs Weather Radio
- OK-WARN Hazardous Weather Pager Program
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