Tornado Season

[katharina]

Are you in an area that's prone to tornados or hurricanes? We've had a lot more tornadoes over the last decade than usual.

The only thing I get here from hurricanes is the downpours sometimes but the tornadoes are terrifying.

Are you prepared for a disaster with a survival kit?

 

[SageMother]

The sirens are tested every Wednesday at 11A.M., where I live. In fact, they actually went off 2 weeks ago because a storm started churning and produced a funnel.

The first thing people do when there is a warning, here, is go outside and look at the sky, to see where the funnel is!

We don't have a survival kit. We live in downtown Denver and, until climate change makes tornadoes behave differently, I don't think we will see those 2 mile wide behemoths that stay on the ground for 2 hours. Most of the big tornadoes hit east of us, and when they have hit near downtown, they have been the "hop, skip, and jump" types that throw parked cars as they go across your front yard, leaving your home untouched.

 

[Twiceshy]

We don't have a survival kit, per se, but we tend to watch the sky and know weather isn't looking good long before the weather service puts an alert out.

I've never made a survival kit because we don't live far from emergency services. They could walk over to help us out, and vice versa.

 

[katharina]

The first thing people do when there is a warning, here, is go outside and look at the sky, to see where the funnel is!

Yes, I know that's what human nature wants everyone to do. Including my grandpa years ago when a tornado hit his rural town. We asked if he'd been in the basement and he laughed "NO! I could see it knocking trees down as it went through the woods from the front door!"

In his defense his basement door was just a few steps away and he WAS totally prepared to head for the steps should the visible funnel make a turn.

 

[katharina]

We don't have a survival kit, per se, but we tend to watch the sky and know weather isn't looking good long before the weather service puts an alert out.

Mostly what I had prepared before we moved was a "tornado box" that contained videos, important papers in a small safe, and pictures. It wasn't too heavy to grab and head for the basement.

Problem with this new house is a big one... no basement and still in an area where it could happen.

 

[katharina]

Problem with this new house is a big one... no basement and still in an area where it could happen.

Speaking of... there was such a nasty line of storms moving through at 4:00 this morning that I thought I'd have to head for the closet under the stairs. Wasn't quite interested enough to actually get up and turn the weather station on, but I probably should have.

 

[heretoday]

The sirens are tested every Wednesday at 11A.M., where I live. In fact, they actually went off 2 weeks ago because a storm started churning and produced a funnel.

The first thing people do when there is a warning, here, is go outside and look at the sky, to see where the funnel is!

We don't have a survival kit. We live in downtown Denver and, until climate change makes tornadoes behave differently, I don't think we will see those 2 mile wide behemoths that stay on the ground for 2 hours. Most of the big tornadoes hit east of us, and when they have hit near downtown, they have been the "hop, skip, and jump" types that throw parked cars as they go across your front yard, leaving your home untouched.

Denver is usually one of the hubs we come into when flying , and you can tell that Denver is near by the dips and little shudders the plane starts to make. You guys have air patterns (whatever you call them) that remind me of home on the Coast!

 

[katharina]

We don't have a survival kit. We live in downtown Denver and, until climate change makes tornadoes behave differently, I don't think we will see those 2 mile wide behemoths that stay on the ground for 2 hours.

Well isn't this eerie? I just heard that your area is under a tornado watch or warning now... I hope you're staying safe, SageMother.

 

[heretoday]

I have relatives in Omaha. A couple of years ago they had a "high wind warning" that blew the trees down to the ground (none of them snapped). I'm used to that on the coast, but it seemed really frighten-making to me. Last visit I was alone in the house watching TV when a tornado warning came on; the local news had a map of the area on the TV, and it seemed that they were touching down where my family was. They got home safe and sound, but I was a bundle of nerves.
Earthquakes and coastal storms don't faze me at all. I even enjoy them a bit (my husband and I got together in the midst of a quake week), but tornadoes make me nervous in the extreme.

 

[katharina]

Last visit I was alone in the house watching TV when a tornado warning came on; the local news had a map of the area on the TV, and it seemed that they were touching down where my family was.

Another thing that's pure terror is not knowing where you ARE when a tornado warning comes up. Let me explain.

It was our road trip last year and we'd gotten a hotel along the interstate. It was very stormy all during the night so at 5 a.m. we just all got up. The local television news was talking about funnels being seen in [whatever it was they said] county. Only we had no idea what county that hotel was in.

We tried to find it in the phone book before calling the desk at 5 a.m. but there certainly were some scary moments. If the funnels are already on the ground, there isn't a lot of time to do much of anything.

And what does one *do* in a hotel anyhow... I assume the bathroom is safest?