Safety Suggestions
If you are Indoors
Tornadoes, Hail, High Winds, and Lightning
If a severe weather warning is issued and you are indoors, stay away from windows and try to get to an interior room. If a tornado warning is issued, you need to find the lowest and most central part of the structure for safety. Make sure you have something covering your head as debris flying over 100 mph will do fatal damage if impacted with your head. Hail, high winds, and lightning are less of a threat if you are indoors, but again stay away from windows and avoid using electronic devices.
If you are Outdoors
Tornadoes
If a tornado is near and you are caught in your car or outdoors, you need to either find a close, solid structure to take shelter in or find a low lying area, such as a ditch where debris is less likely to impact you. Make sure to cover your head with your hands and try to stay as low to the ground as possible. Do not use underpasses as shelter as the winds are increased in these areas and pose a greater threat.
High Winds, Hail, and Lightning
If you are in your car, stay in your car. The best protection for all three of these threats outside is in your car. If high winds are the threat, make sure to point your car into the wind, as you are less likely to get moved by the wind. In a hail situation, finding shelter underneath an underpass is good to protect your car, however these tend to get crowded quick.
If you are outside without any form of protection, find the nearest sturdy structure immediately. Being caught outside with these
threats greatly increases your chance of being injured.In a high wind storm, it is best to find a place to stay overnight, as these winds
may last over 6 hours in length.
Flooding- Turn Around, Don't Drown
Flooding takes the most lives every year because of drivers thinking they can get through flood waters, when in fact they cannot.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Science organization tells drivers to "turn around, don't drown." Only six inches of moving water
can overtake a car. Once overtaken, you are at the mercy of the flood waters which almost always leads to death. If you see water running
over a roadway, take a different route and try to report it to the city as they will shut the road down.
Turn Around, Don't Drown Website
Common Misconceptions and Myths
1) Opening your windows before a tornado hits will not lessen the damage, it will actually make it more likely that the roof is ripped off
2) Tornadoes do actually go over rivers, as the surface features have little effect on the rotation
3) Hail falling from the sky DOES NOT mean a tornado is coming. Tornadoes are associated with hail because supercell storms tend to be the only storm that produces tornadoes and hail. The fact that you see hail does not mean, however, a tornado is present as many other factors go into tornado formation
4) Highway overpasses do not provide shelter from tornadoes as they act like a wind tunnel and actually increase the overall wind speed, making it a much greater threat
5) Tornadoes DO NOT only come from the SW and move to the NE. This is the "typical movement", but certainly not the movement of tornadoes in all cases