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Tornados

How to Deal with a Tornado

Shelter

  • Seek inside shelter if possible. If in the open, move away from a tornado’s path at a right angle.
  • Never hide under an overpass.
  • Get out of your vehicle and go to a low spot such as a ditch and lie flat, cover your head with your hands and lie face down.
  • Get away from trees and cars as they can be blown into you.
  • If you have livestock open gates and let them run.  They can sense impending tornados.
  • On the farm seek shelter in a very sturdy building.

In Office Buildings

The basement or an interior hallway on a lower floor is safest. Upper stories are unsafe. If there is no time to descend, a closet or small room with stout walls, or an inside hallway will give some protection against flying debris. Otherwise, get under heavy furniture.

In Homes With Basements

Seek refuge near the basement wall in the most sheltered and deepest below ground part of the basement. Additional protection is afforded by taking cover under heavy furniture or a workbench. Other basement possibilities are the smallest room with stout walls, or under a stairway. A storm cellar, or reinforced portion of the basement, can be planned and constructed.

In Homes Without Basements

Take cover in the smallest room with stout walls, or under heavy furniture or a tipped-over upholstered couch or chair in the center part of the house. The first floor is safer than the second (or third). If there is time, open windows partly on the side away from the direction of the storm’s approach but stay away from windows when the storm strikes since shattered glass shards can be fatal. Go underneath your stairs or in your bathroom in the tub and place mattresses on top of you OR go in a doorway as they are built stronger. Construction of a storm cellar is particularly advisable for homes without basements. An alternative is pre-selection of a nearby culvert or deep ditch.

Mobile Homes

Particularly vulnerable to overturning and destruction during strong winds, trailers should be abandoned in favour of a preselected shelter, even a ditch in the open. Securing the trailer with cables anchored in a concrete footing can minimize damage.

If You Are in the Recreation Complex

  • Get out immediately and find shelter in another building or lie down in the ditch beside the building, or the drainage ditch at the back of the building directly in the bottom of it, not the sides.
  • If you cannot leave find cover under a sturdy structure such as a table or desk, go to the offices at the front desk or library.

Avoid

  • Avoid factories, auditoriums, and other large buildings with wide, free span roofs.
  • Preselected shelter areas should be located in basements, smaller rooms or nearby.
  • Parked Cars Are Unsafe
  • Do not use cars as shelter during a tornado or severe windstorm; however, as a last resort, if no ravine or ditch is nearby, crawl under the car for protection from flying debris.
  • There is no one stop answer but shelter in place as best you can. Get as low to the ground as you can and DO NOT congregate in large groups intentionally.  Tornados are very deceptive and may appear to be standing still but they typically move very fast toward you.

How To Prepare

Tornado contact with the ground (funnel cloud) occurs with very little advance warning. The wisest action is to be prepared in advance to cover all disasters (including a tornado).

  • Emergency Kit
  • Have radios in your home that run on batteries, not on electricity or WIFI and listen to any alerts.
  • Have phone charging blocks with you and tune into radar or Environment Canada.
  • Action Plan – Sit down as a family and discuss what action should be taken if someone is shopping, at school, at work or visiting friends.
  • Rendezvous – Make sure part of your plan includes a meeting place and a way of communicating if separated during an emergency.
  • Mobility – During storm season, keep a full tank of gas in the car at all times.

Environment Canada Alerts

Please watch Environment Canada Alerts for any and all information regarding extreme weather events such as Tornados.