Tornado Survival Tips

Reader Contribution by Matthew Stein
Published on June 6, 2013
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Darden describes a family of five who lived on a farm outside of Higdon, Ala., a small community in the northern part of the state. They had no storm shelter, but they did live in a home that he says was well built.

On Saturday, Darden and a partner visited the family. “The mother and three daughters were there at the time,” he recalls. Looking at the wall-free ground floor—all that remained of the home—”I introduced myself and said: Thank God y’all were not home. “Her response? “Oh, we were here.” With no storm shelter and nothing but a slab foundation left, “I really thought she was joking,” he continues. “I asked: Where were you at?”

She led the two men to a spot on the storm-swept slab, where nothing but a small patch of hardwood flooring and a scrap of carpeting remained—parts of each pulled up by the tornado. The rest of the flooring vanished into the vortex and hasn’t been found. The patch is all that was left of the interior hallway in which the family huddled. “They were not touched,” he says, in a voice tinged with amazement. “They were not sucked up. They didn’t have a scratch on them.” — Pete Spotts, “Lessons From the Wreckage: How Alabama Could Help Tornado Preparedness,” Christian Science Monitor, May 4, 2011

Who could not be shocked and saddened by the images of massive devastation left in the wake of recent tornadoes that struck in Oklahoma and Texas? Though nothing can guarantee absolute safety in the path of a tornado, outside of a shelter with reinforced concrete and steel walls, understanding something about the nature of tornadoes, safety tips for surviving a tornado strike, and which common folklore is to be trusted or ignored, will improve your chances for making the right decision when confronted by a tornado.

Tornado Facts and Myths

• It is commonly believed that tornadoes happen mostly in the spring, but the peak of tornado season varies with location, and tornadoes can occur any month of the year. For example, the peak of tornado season in the northern plains and upper Midwest is June or July but it is from May to early June in the southern plains, and even earlier in the spring for the Gulf Coast.

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