Tornadoes are one of the most destructive weather events, with winds as high as over 200 miles per hour and leaving a trail of destruction a mile or wider. Around 1,000 tornadoes form in the U.S. each year; and while most occur in the spring or summer, they have been known to happen at any time of year.
If you live in an area where tornadoes are common, consider building a concrete reinforced safe room in the center of your home or an underground storm cellar. The next best place of refuge in a storm is in a basement, followed by an interior room without windows.
Automobiles and mobile homes are the worst places to be during a tornado, so get out and seek shelter in either a building or a low spot or ditch.
Educating your family is the first step toward preparing for a tornado outbreak. Get to know the most volatile and active seasons (usually springtime), and become familiar with the histories of tornado touchdowns in your area.
In a home or a building, move to a pre-designated shelter, preferably the basement or the lowest floor of your home. Don’t worry about opening your windows first – that would be a mistake, just get to the basement, and get under a sturdy piece of furniture or workbench. Grab blankets to cover yourself with, which will protect you from flying debris.
If an underground shelter (basement) is not available, move to an interior room or hallway on the lowest floor, and crouch down close to the floor. Again, grab extra blankets to protect yourself from flying debris. Stay away from windows – as they can shatter due to flying debris and the force of the wind.
To survive a tornado, do not believe in false alarms. This means you should treat every watch and warning as the real deal. Seek shelter and don’t drive thinking it’s a false alarm. Here’s the deal Just because you don’t hear the sirens, doesn’t mean there isn’t a tornado headed your way. As is the case many times, the tornado has wiped out the siren communications!
Tornadoes come with an average warning time of around fifteen minutes. Take every warning seriously and be on alert.
How to prepare for a tornado prepper-style is different from tornado preparedness for the average person. Before a twister heads, your way grab a helmet, a whistle, and ear plugs. Discover more thoughtful preparedness ideas for surviving tornadoes.
Thankfully F5 Tornadoes are extremely rare! Somewhere under the rainbow, blue birds will fly again after a tornado strikes. Like any natural disaster, there’s no place like home when you’re prepared!
The number one thing you can do to prepare for a tornado is to get some first aid knowledge under your belt. Take some classes, buy a book, stock up on first aid essentials so you can respond to neighbors and friends who may need your assistance.Like they say, knowledge weighs nothing and you can learn to improvise even if the damage is so great you’ve lost all your first aid supplies.
Preparing for a tornado and other natural disaster is important because the odds of a natural disaster affecting you are far greater than one of these SHTF scenarios we read about all the time. Also, by preparing for a tornado or other natural disasters you will find that you are becoming more prepared for the larger disaster scenarios. This is because the basic supplies are for the most part the same.
Now that we have done everything we can to prepare for the unfortunate event of a tornado hitting our home, it doesn’t mean we are out of the woods. Just like earthquakes, volcano’s and hurricanes, there is no way to fight Mother Nature, we just need to do our best to stay out of her way.