Tornados

Disaster Plans

Why wait until you know they are coming? HOW do you know they are coming? Do you have three ways to get weather warnings?

Weather Radio
TV and Radio
cellphone or pager

Can you get warnings other ways?

Then, after you know, NOW is the time to make the plan. That is the purpose of the original question, from Lyle:

Shelter inside, lowest level, interior room.
Build a safe room or UNDERGROUND storm cellar

Do you need 72-hours supplies in your safe room? Sure do! What happens when you come out of the cellar and nothing's left? Where's your next meal?

Outside? Do NOT try to outrun the tornado. Exit the car. Go to a low place. Put YOU between the tornado and the car. In other words, get in the ditch.

Communications? Who do you need to call to tell them you are Safe and Well? How will you call them? Amateur Radio is a good tool.

Are You Ready? or 800-BE-READY.

The site will give you a FREE book to help you with planning.

After you get the plan, build a kit to support the plan.

Don't forget to practice the plan.

THEN, help your neighbors and relatives BE READY!

 

There isn't time to prepare when a tornado is coming. It is just that simple. Most people that I know that are in tornado prone areas already have their safe area setup or at least a plan in place.
Where I live most of the tornados follow pretty regular paths. When I hear a warning on the radio I can generally name the rest of the cities in the warning. Thankfully I am not in one of those areas. I still have a plan and a place in my house just in case.

 

well...since i was raised in tornado alley.....yes...there is another warning.....you can see them coming....

some signs are heavy air....very, very still.....and the sky goes *green*.....you get a feel for it if you live in a tornado area.....

 

What causes the sky to turn emerald green like that? I have seen it just before an extremely violent storm that almost threw a tree on my car had I not moved it seconds before.

 

Like you, I have been reared in Tornado Alley.

Sometimes, you can't see them coming. The tornadoes can be rain-wrapped or come in the dark of night. Night spotting is difficult.

Personally, I would use my friends at the
and read the Hazardous Weather Outlook. This is published twice per day.

As I have already mentioned, Citizens with cellular phone and/or paging service with email capabilities are encouraged to subscribe to services such as offered by EmergencyE or MyStateUSA.

There are PLENTY of ways to know that severe weather is coming.

 

Does a tornado really sound like a freight train?

Once I was outside my car for some reason and one was forming so I stood in it, but it kept getting bigger and bigger and by the time we had left I realized it was getting dangerous

 

Yep. Sometimes they sound like a million screaming pigs, too. Depends on the size and intensity of the storm, among other things.

The city that I live in was hit badly during the tornado outbreak of April 1974, and we continue to get pounded every January to May, and then again in November every year. Keeps you on your toes!

 

My plan is to take cover. Assuming I survive a direct hit I have the means to provide.
We have had 3 close ones here. One was a freight train sound at 1 AM that woke everyone up, lost some trees, partial roof, and a shed.
The other 2 didn't make a peep until debris started flying. Broken windows,trees down, got the neighbor's trampoline from a quarter mile away set up just perfect in the yard. The wife wouldn't let me and the kids keep it, had to give it back.

Quakes and tornado's are the scariest natural events that concern me, very little warning. You can't shoot em, blow them up, talk em down, or stick em.
Only one thing to do, tuck and cover.

 

We ere in our home less than 2 months when we had a tornado headed straight for our small valley. I was home alone and realized there wasn't a place to go! I have always read go to an interior room with no windows and don't go under the stairs. Our house has no interior rooms and the only interior area is under the stairs. So as of right now we have no safe place to go in our home.

I found a pefect place to build a storm cellar in our back yard. It looks like this area where our house and yard is, was dug out of the side of the hill/mountain. I wonder if we could dig into it? Does anyone have any experience doing this? The sloping cliff is about 40 feet tall. Can you do this without heavy equipment? How do you shore the sides and top so it doesn't cave in? How big do you make one per person?
Would love to make this a storm/root cellar.

 

Taking Shelter from the Storm

Thank you for this question!

I would not recommend digging into the side of a hill without heavy equipment. The questions you ask tend to make me think you lack construction experience.

Given that the slope is 40-feet tall, I am left assuming that it is more than 40 feet wide. Building your safe room into the side of the hill might be a good idea, if you can safely do it.

An alternative is to build an underground shelter, just outside your door. This would be safer in that, for short notice warnings, you don't have so far to run to get to it.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has a good publication called Taking Shelter from the Storm. This document helps one plan for safe room construction.

Check your local emergency management office. There may be a grant available to help pay for construction. I know, in Oklahoma, there was a Statewide effort years ago to assist Citizens with the cost of constructing their saferooms. Any shelters paid with your tax dollars would have to meet the FEMA standards. That's another reason for downloading the document.

Thanks again for this question.

 

You are correct, we have absolutely no experience :0. We were thinking we would dig whenever we had a chance. I know it would take a while and the ground here is pretty rocky and there are some trees to remove.
We would have to go out the back door about 200 feet to the place I was planning on using but I also would like to hide the entrance for any other reason we might need to use it. But you are right, 200 feet when a tornado is upon you could be fatal. Might have to have an alternative plan.