Where do I go in case of a tornado?

[boscorama]

A word about tornado warnings: Don't be under a mattress in the bathtub for the duration of a warning in your county unless radar indicates it's nearby or coming your way.

Some people enjoy the storms. Until it's on top of me I'm outside watching and listening to rolling of thunder as the storm approaches. After it passes you hear it from the other end. When there's daylight there's usually a fabulous rainbow or two. Out in the country it's even more glorious.

(Stay away from lightning!)

[Jim Kyle]

The best idea really is to take shelter immediately when a tornado warning is issued -- the advice on how to actually shelter is great.

If, and only if, the issued warning is precise then I could agree with this. However in practice the warnings are issued for an entire county, or even more than one, and as a result appear to be false alarms almost every time. There seems to be a CYA attitude in place regarding warnings: if there's any possible chance of damage, issue the warning for the entire county. And in OKC, the city sounds the sirens whenever there's a warning for Oklahoma County. If I, living almost at the western edge of the county, took cover every time the sirens sound (when the storm that prompted them is at the southeastern corner of the county and all is well in my area) I would be spending most of the spring huddled in my safe room...

The key is to remain aware of what's going on, rather than being unduly influenced by screamers on TV.

Granted, we can now pinpoint storm locations much more accurately than was possible even 25 years ago, but we still don't have a way to localize the warnings enough to make your advice practical...

[MikeLucky]

The meteorologist in me is cringing at a lot of the advice being given in this thread (but I'm from the other side of it, the screaming heads apparently, and still new to the region, so meh. lol). Social scientists are frantically studying human behavior to learn how to have people NOT look outside to see the tornado for themselves. It is a huge problem and while most people who do so will be lucky and be fine, the best idea really is to take shelter immediately when a tornado warning is issued -- the advice on how to actually shelter is great. Furthermore not every tornado will have a prominent hook echo on radar (though most of the huge tornadoes probably will) so I really don't think it is wise to look at the radar data being shown on TV and take the matter into your own hands. I mean no confrontation by any of this, but working with scientists who have dedicated their lives to getting people to do exactly the opposite of the advice being given and then reading this is a tad discouraging, lol.

I would wager that I've been closer to more tornadoes than most, if not all, of these social scientists you speak of. Not saying I'm smarter, just that experience breeds wisdom.

I've had some close calls... lol. But, rest assured this okie (like many others) knows exactly when run... and, does exactly that, when necessary.

Besides, I ain't gonna listen to some yankee scientist about what I should do when a 'nader is comin.'

[LocoAko]

I would wager that I've been closer to more tornadoes than most, if not all, of these social scientists you speak of. Not saying I'm smarter, just that experience breeds wisdom.

I've had some close calls... lol. But, rest assured this okie (like many others) knows exactly when run... and, does exactly that, when necessary.

Besides, I ain't gonna listen to some yankee scientist about what I should do when a 'nader is comin.'

Touche. I didn't mean to sound confrontational, and as a met I run outside, too ... so I'm being completely hypocritical lol . I just think that for the majority of the public without experience, the best idea is to take shelter, even if 99% of the time it is a false alarm at their specific location.

[ou48A]

Before you run outside….. find out where the tornado is, its general speed and direction travel… you may well have time to run out side….. but then personal experience tells me that I may not have time.
If you get a long warning time evacuating out of the path is often the best option….However this becomes a less attractive option in an urban environment and in areas where there are lots of trees and hills.

Also, your personal knowledge of tornado weather should be factored in.
In general the more you know about tornados the safer you are when evacuating.
Always stay out of the bear’s cage.

[rezman]

Crown Heights does not have tornados..My house was built in 1919 and is still standing

I'm in the same boat though. My house has large windows in every room including the bathroom, so really there is no place to go.

Back in he mid to late 60's, a tornado did come through that area. It hopped and skipped along what was then the 39th street expressway at Penn, and touched down again just north of Crown Heights, northeast of Bishop Mcguinness High School along what is now I-44, on the south side of the highway, and then went on northeast on the north side of the highway.

Doctortaco, it's an Oklahome tradition to go outside and observe severe weather. It won't take too long beore you'll be able to tell what the weather is going to do just by paying attention to the elements outside. And the technology today gives plenty of advanced warning to take shelter.

Oh... and Penn Square is the LAST place i would try to go to take cover, unless I could get down into the basements of the big department stores there.

[Snowman]

I would only recommend using Penn Square (more specifically it's parking garage) during a heavy storm for protecting vehicles if a large non-tornadic hail storm is coming through. Either if you would have to drive through the storm to get home or live nearby and have a vehicle that would be outside if it was at the house.

[Plutonic Panda]

BTW, do NOT pull under an underpass during a tornado or a intense straight line wind event.

[Larry OKC]

Touche. I didn't mean to sound confrontational, and as a met I run outside, too ... so I'm being completely hypocritical lol . I just think that for the majority of the public without experience, the best idea is to take shelter, even if 99% of the time it is a false alarm at their specific location.

Am always amused by some reporter that is doing a live shot from the middle of some storm and warning folks "don't do this at home". Wise words but contradicted by their actions (yes, I know its their job). And I am sure that the thought runs threw the mind of someone, "see, nothing bad is happening to them, won't happen to me either"

Also, sometime in the past couple of years various "earnings" have been issued. It used to be that a warning was reserved for when the event actually existed..verified by radar or eye witness accounts etc. If the possibility simply existed that a tornado or whatever might form, it was considered a "watch". Why did it change? By making what should be a watch, a warning, seems like crying wolf and folks will become complacent about the warning when a clear and present danger exists.

[rezman]

Am always amused by some reporter that is doing a live shot from the middle of some storm and warning folks "don't do this at home". Wise words but contradicted by their actions (yes, I know its their job). And I am sure that the thought runs threw the mind of someone, "see, nothing bad is happening to them, won't happen to me either"

Also, sometime in the past couple of years various "earnings" have been issued. It used to be that a warning was reserved for when the event actually existed..verified by radar or eye witness accounts etc. If the possibility simply existed that a tornado or whatever might form, it was considered a "watch". Why did it change? By making what should be a watch, a warning, seems like crying wolf and folks will become complacent about the warning when a clear and present danger
exists.

Nothing has changed. A tornado watch means that conditions are favorable for tornadic activity to occur. A tornado warning means that tornadic activity does exist and that a tornado is likely.

[HotStuff80]

I agree about the scenario regarding NOT GETTING INTO YOUR CAR! As a 13 year-old in southwestern Oklahoma, my Dad would always get us in the car and drive 1/2 a mile to my grandmother's house (she had a concrete storm cellar).

We were traveling in her driveway, lined with Pecan trees and suddenly you could not even see the hood-ornament on the Buick , 4 door auto. When the wind and dirt cleared we found ourselves in a cotton field about 20 yards off the driveway. The next morning, we noticed that her three-storey barn was only 1 storey. Now... THAT was scary. Never again...

[venture]

If, and only if, the issued warning is precise then I could agree with this. However in practice the warnings are issued for an entire county, or even more than one, and as a result appear to be false alarms almost every time. There seems to be a CYA attitude in place regarding warnings: if there's any possible chance of damage, issue the warning for the entire county. And in OKC, the city sounds the sirens whenever there's a warning for Oklahoma County. If I, living almost at the western edge of the county, took cover every time the sirens sound (when the storm that prompted them is at the southeastern corner of the county and all is well in my area) I would be spending most of the spring huddled in my safe room...

The key is to remain aware of what's going on, rather than being unduly influenced by screamers on TV.

Granted, we can now pinpoint storm locations much more accurately than was possible even 25 years ago, but we still don't have a way to localize the warnings enough to make your advice practical...

Warnings a bit more precise now. The warning polygons are going to cover the area most impacted. Most of the local TV stations have moved to show the actual warning area, but a few still just highlight the full counties. As far as the outdoor warnings, it comes down to the siren system the city has in place. I'm not familiar with OKC's, so I can't comment. The new siren system Norman put in place last year allows for only specific areas of the city to be sounded. This helps when say a tornado is over far East Norman (Lake Thunderbird area) but not impacting Western and Central Norman where the bulk of the population is (West of East 48th).

Tornado precautions aren't all that complicated, as others have pointed out. Basement, shelter, or safe room are first. If not available focus on lowest level, interior room, no windows, preferably a closet or bathroom (get in the tub). Protect yourself with pillows, a mattress, helmets, etc.

Definitely don't get in a car and try to go somewhere. Public shelters are pretty much non-existent in most cities due to liability problems.

Last part if you are in a car, ditch if your best option. Stay away from all overpasses - EVEN IN HAIL STORMS. Nothing irritates me more than 5 rows of cars under overpasses blocking traffic on a highway during hail.

Stay weather aware and don't put yourself in the situation to begin with.

[ctchandler]

Other than military service, I have lived here my whole life and I'm 69 so I have been through what a lot of you have mentioned, including the tornado one year before the Del City destruction. I was outside with an old friend from Maryland talking when it hit. My wife yelled at us to come in the house. We crouched down in the hallway. After it was over we went outside and saw that trees were uprooted and snapped in two and every entrance to my home except my garage door was blocked. My 300 foot drive was covered with trees and it took the city to clear out the drive for us. It turned out that it was mainly in the air and didn't touch down on my property but that didn't stop it from destroying 160 trees. Yes, my wife counted them. One of my neighbors is a professional photographer and took about twenty pictures of the hook cloud(s) and the funnel itself. Nobody hurt, and only $4,000 damage to my home. And this is not advice, but in reference to the Del City monster tornado, it is the first and last time that I have ever heard the meteorologist (Gary England) say if you can get in your car, do it immediately and drive away from the direction of the tornado. Of course that tornado was extremely wide and moved the concrete slabs of homes.
C. T.

[MsProudSooner]

We really are blessed to have some amazing weather technology here. I was in Dallas last year during a tornado outbreak there and everything, from the weathermen on TV to the municipal warning system, was very amateur compared to what we have here.
.

My daughter lives in Dallas and she's convinced that a tornado will blow away have of Dallas some day and they will get little or no warning.

[ou48A]

My daughter lives in Dallas and she's convinced that a tornado will blow away have of Dallas some day and they will get little or no warning.

By comparison to OKC the Dallas TV coverage of tornadoes is terrible.
Also they act like anything past Denton is outside their coverage area.

[ou48A]

I agree about the scenario regarding NOT GETTING INTO YOUR CAR! As a 13 year-old in southwestern Oklahoma, my Dad would always get us in the car and drive 1/2 a mile to my grandmother's house (she had a concrete storm cellar).

We were traveling in her driveway, lined with Pecan trees and suddenly you could not even see the hood-ornament on the Buick , 4 door auto. When the wind and dirt cleared we found ourselves in a cotton field about 20 yards off the driveway. The next morning, we noticed that her three-storey barn was only 1 storey. Now... THAT was scary. Never again...

No don’t get in your car if the tornado is 5 miles away…. But if you have an EF5 like on MAY 3 1999 near Chickasha and you live in Moore you have time to evacuate out of the way and to a rural area as long as you say tuned to updates. Don’t box yourself in and stay off the interstates. You have got to be smart about how you do it....It’s probably not for everybody.

[kevinpate]

In the hope folks know this already category .....
If you are in your car and a storm rolls up on you, don't dash your car underneath the pump awnings at convenience stores or stop under the bridges that pass over the highway. Sure, you avoid a bit of hail, but you're not exactly cradling yourself in safety's bosom.

[easternobserver]

In the hope folks know this already category .....
If you are in your car and a storm rolls up on you, don't dash your car underneath the pump awnings at convenience stores or stop under the bridges that pass over the highway. Sure, you avoid a bit of hail, but you're not exactly cradling yourself in safety's bosom.

Good point. Along those lines, be careful if you choose to have one of those in-garage storm shelters. Leave the car out of the garage, put the lawnmower outside, and get rid of the gas cans. These things really aren't safe -- gasoline vapors (and those of many other common "garage" substances) are heavier than air, meaning that when the gas can gets knocked over on a hot day the vapors are going to collect at the lowest point -- the beautiful sump you just built in the middle of your garage.

In reality, building codes (specifically the mechanical code) call the bottom 18 inches of the garage a hazardous area (that is why hot water tanks and other ignition sources need to be elevated above 18 inches.

Also, when those shelters are dug, they often are placed next to the wall between the house and garage, which is almost always a load bearing wall sitting on a load bearing portion of the foundation. Digging the shelter can impact the bearing plane of the foundation, leading to future foundation failures.

Some of the designs of these shelters are pretty cool -- especially if you put them in the back patio instead of in the garage.

[SoonerQueen]

I live near Penn Square and unless you are already in the mall, you don't want to be in a car during a potentially dangerous tornado event. Penn Square parking garage is a haven during a major hailstorm. It's a great place to go if you don't have a garage to put your car in.

[OkieHornet]

What are some of the best severe weather iPhone apps? Looking for one where you could specifically set it only for warnings, not watches. The more detailed, the better. As many watches we get, not really wanting to get woken up in the middle of the night for a freeze watch. ;-)

[mkjeeves]

imap Weather Radio seems to be a pretty good app and has the ability to turn on which alerts you want to receive. (I have everything turned off but tornado warnings.) I got it when it was free, sponsored by Channel 9 and Sandridge, which means it has their banner ad on it and Channel 9 alerts in addition the other alerts. It is $9.99 otherwise. I don't know if that's still a possibility to get it free or not but here's the details:


Get The News 9 Weather Radio App FREE For A Limited Time - News9.com - Oklahoma City, OK - News, Weather, Video and Sports |

UPDATE: I sent the text again and got a different message than the original download link, so apparently it is no longer free that way. It's still a good app.

I saw the tornado up close and retreated back into what was then Jumbo Sports on North May minutes before it went over and took out part of the roof and AC equipment. Everyone in the store hid in the restroom until it finished rumbling over. I've seen a few other funnels dipping out of clouds over the years. Would like to have a hole in my garage but haven't done that yet.

[OSUMom]

As you take your storm precautions, be sure to have something to drink on hand, so you can play the Gary England Drinking Game.

Gary England Drinking Game

[OSUMom]

And for good advice, I agree with everyone else, do not get in your car. The only reason it was mentioned on May 3rd 1999 was because it was the first and only time I ever heard Gary England say "You MUST be underground. If you cannot get underground, go somewhere out of the path of this tornado." Plus if I remember right, that monster moved real slowly. So for once you had time to get somewhere out of the way.


And overpasses are a VERY bad idea. You are better off out in the elements in a ditch, then under an overpass.

[Snowman]

As you take your storm precautions, be sure to have something to drink on hand, so you can play the Gary England Drinking Game.

Gary England Drinking Game

When I saw that a few years back, my first thought was those occur too frequently to do with alcohol

[Bunty]

And, I know it's a HUGE Okie cliche... but, for me the best way to know what is happening is to go outside and observe the conditions (EDIT: from inside the garage or under a covered patio that allows you to seek cover quickly, if necessary). Whenever a tornado is moving very close to you it is USUALLY a progression of heavy rain and high winds... then as the twister gets close you will have hail... then if it's REALLY close everything will just stop.... wind, rain, hail, all of it. It'll go very, very calm. That's when I start running for cover. When you are in the immediate proximity to the tornado, it is essentially pulling everything out of the air and sucking it up. Anyone that has been that close to a tornado will tell you that while it's completely calm, it's a very strange and eery feeling.

I'll also add that it's a pretty serious sign that a tornado may be coming, if the electricity goes out at your house during a tornado warning. It could be your last warning to take cover.