Tornados

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

• 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.