On the open road, do not use a highway overpass for a tornado or hail shelter. Get off the road and seek shelter in a building. If no building is available, move at a right angel of the tornado path. Most tornado damage swaths are at most, one mile wide. The idea is to move out of the path not to out run the tornado. You can determine the path by picking an object that is in line with the tornado and watching to see if the tornado is moving to the right or left, if it is getting bigger it is more than likely moving in your direction and you need to take cover or move. In town taking cover in a building would be the action to take, the roads will be filled with people trying to get away, and being in a traffic jam with a big tornado coming down the road, would not be my choice of action to take. With this said you should not be on the road during severe weather, if in your car and severe weather is moving in “stop, get out, take cover” be aware of your environment. Here are some photos of cars and trucks that have had an encounter with the winds of a tornado. Your vehicles with give you no protection from the winds of a tornado. Stay tuned to local radio or TV. If threatening weather is approaching, take the appropriate action.

Getting the Warnings

If you and your family have a smoke and fire detector in your home, business and schools… have a NOAA weather radio (NWR). To be able to take action and take cover from these storms you will first have to know that a warning has been issued for your location, if the storm is moving in at night a NWR will wake you and your family up from sleep. And our tornado sirens are not meant to be an indoor warning system. The soul purpose of our Civil Defense (CD) sirens, are to warn the public that are in the outdoors, not in your home, office or school, so if you do not own a NWR with battery back up, get one today from your local electronics store or take a look at these links for on-line sources. If you live in a rural community and out away from the cities, you may have to get a radio that has an external antenna. I am including a link that has the NWR stations and coverage. After it is all said and done, the price of one of these radios is well, just worth your life and that of your family’s lives.

Take an active roll in you safety before the next severe weather day, go to your HR (Human Resources) department at work and ask questions. If you have a safety coordinator is he or she involved with making sure that everyone at your work place knows, were to go and what to do. And is there a way you will know if a warning is issued while at work. If you are having fire drills at work and school… you should be having severe weather drills. Get involved with your communities; if you live in a small city or town is there a CD siren, if so is it being tested on a weekly or monthly basis. On April 26, 1991 a tornado moved into the town of Andover Kansas and into the Golden Spur Trailer Park. The city had a siren but it was not in working condition, lives were lost. Some people were not aware that a large tornado was just minutes away and therefore did not take the action that would have likely saved there life.