Tornado: Shelter the Right Way

WHEN A WARNING IS ISSUED - Move NOW — you may have only minutes. - Abandon a mobile home / manufactured home for ANY sturdier shelter, even driving a short distance if time and roads allow. Mobile homes are destroyed by even weaker tornadoes. BEST SHELTER 1. Lowest level of a sturdy building: a basement is best. 2. If no basement, the most INTERIOR room on the lowest floor — a bathroom, closet or hallway, away from windows. 3. Put as many walls between you and the outside as you can. 4. Protect your head and neck: use a helmet, blankets, pillows, or a mattress pulled over you. Flying debris is the #1 killer. IF YOU'RE ... - In a car and can't reach sturdy shelter: DO NOT take shelter under an overpass (winds accelerate through it and it offers no protection). If you can't drive away at a right angle to the storm, get out, find a ditch or low ground well away from the vehicle, lie flat, and cover your head with your hands/arms and a jacket. - Outside: same — lowest ground, cover your head. AFTER - Watch for downed power lines, broken gas lines and leaking fuel. Report gas smell; don't flip switches. - Stay out of damaged buildings until cleared. - Continue listening for updates — more tornadoes can follow.