Bad Weather Tonight

[forHISglory]

Please forgive my 'probably' simple sounding questions but I have never traveled in the MW.......let alone had to deal with tornado season.....

so...........when you get these warnings do you go to "your shelter" right away or since they are able to let you know with more 'lead time' now do you wait?

What is your shelter? Do you have extra food there too? What is the longest that you have had to remain in your shelter?

Can you tell that I just can't get my mind around preparing for this type of thing????

Excellent questions,FF. We begin to get warnings well in advance of the impending storm. First they warn us that conditions are right for such a storm to happen. Then they send warnings of storms that are actually happening. Last night, the weather girl on local TV couldn't keep up with the reports, and was shouting, "Get to your shelter! NOW!!!" However, sometimes the storm cell is so powerful and so fast that it just explodes with little to no warning. But usually there is lead time.

Our shelter is our basement. The majority of homes in our area have basements, and some have little caves in the yard called storm cellars. When we go to the basement, we huddle in a little closet under the stairs in the center of the basement. It's important to not be near anything glass, such as windows or patio doors that could explode and send shards ripping into you. We have bottled water, packaged peanuts, flashlights, a wind up radio and a wind up coleman lantern. I have a bag to grab (hopefully) with essential info in like checking numbers, credit card numbers, meds, charger for cell phone, and that sort of thing. During storm season, I just keep it by the stairs to the basement to grab on the way down. We actually don't stay in the shelter very long. Maybe half an hour at the longest. These storms tend to move swiftly.

My parents used to keep games and hymnals in the storm shelter when we were kids. Guess they wanted to distract us!!!

[forHISglory]

Here's an addendum to our storm stories:

A school district just north of us was having Prom last night. The tornado hit and they went into lock down. Then Prom was canceled. Today those same kids are out cleaning up the community from damage. Way to go!!!!!

[frugalfranny]

Excellent questions,FF. We begin to get warnings well in advance of the impending storm. First they warn us that conditions are right for such a storm to happen. Then they send warnings of storms that are actually happening. Last night, the weather girl on local TV couldn't keep up with the reports, and was shouting, "Get to your shelter! NOW!!!" However, sometimes the storm cell is so powerful and so fast that it just explodes with little to no warning. But usually there is lead time.

Our shelter is our basement. The majority of homes in our area have basements, and some have little caves in the yard called storm cellars. When we go to the basement, we huddle in a little closet under the stairs in the center of the basement. It's important to not be near anything glass, such as windows or patio doors that could explode and send shards ripping into you. We have bottled water, packaged peanuts, flashlights, a wind up radio and a wind up coleman lantern. I have a bag to grab (hopefully) with essential info in like checking numbers, credit card numbers, meds, charger for cell phone, and that sort of thing. During storm season, I just keep it by the stairs to the basement to grab on the way down. We actually don't stay in the shelter very long. Maybe half an hour at the longest. These storms tend to move swiftly.

Thank you FHG...........I REALLY do appreciate this.

I am sort of a weather nut (and news nut too) and this has me totally intrigued........and anxious for the people that have to deal with this type of thing.

I literally got chills reading about it.......seems so strange, which makes it scary to me.

We get the VERY RARE tornado here(and NEVER a storm system that 'creates them').........and then they always have to go out and "make sure" it was a tornado.......which just makes me shake my head!!! But I have often wondered where I would go if that rare circumstance rose it's ugly head where we got them.......

I hope there are no more deaths during this season and that EVERYONE remains safe!!! That is the most important thing...........STUFF can be replaced!

[imagine]

Thank you FHG...........[B] But I have often wondered where I would go if that rare circumstance rose it's ugly head where we got them.......

I hope there are no more deaths during this season and that EVERYONE remains safe!!! That is the most important thing...........STUFF can be replaced!

If a underground shelter is not available one goes to the most interior room generally a closet or bathroom.

Lead time on possible tornadoes is longer then it use to be. Most of the time this is called a watch and means tornadoes could form the conditions are ripe.

A warning is issued in my area if a tornado is seen by a actual trained person or by radar. The sirens are blown. Most areas here have them emergency broadcast signals go out on Tv and radio. Most people take shelter then.

Once in basement we do normal stuff. And keep a ear on the radio where they give detailed info on the tornado.

I grew up with tornadoes so they are not fearful to me. I once saw one on a date with Hubby while waiting for piazza. Noone appeared fearful. That said I think I would be scared if a tornado was blowing the upstairs of the place I had taken shelter.

[Spirit Deer]

FF, watch the movie Twister sometime. It's reasonably accurate.

[frugalfranny]

FF, watch the movie Twister sometime. It's reasonably accurate.

Isn't that a really old movie?............think I did, years ago. Think that might even have been one---of the VERY few----that I watched twice.

They have a show on regular TV called "Storm Stories" and our station will move it around but it is 'usually' on Sat. PM at 4........which is a bad time for me, but I try to usually check to see if it is on. Not just about tornadoes---other things too......mother nature does intrigue me!

She can really reek some havoc!!! (also makes me appreciate my area more----pretty calm stuff here!!)

[imagine]

Isn't that a really old movie?............think I did, years ago. Think that might even have been one---of the VERY few----that I watched twice.

Twister was in movie theaters when I was pregnant with my high schooler.

Here is a review of Twister from a meteorological point of view

"Meteorologists say `Twister' is exciting, but distorts reality"

http://www.cimms.ou.edu/~stumpf/twistint.html

[Spirit Deer]

All movies distort reality.

We watch Storm Stories too. It's on The Weather Channel.

[imagine]

All movies distort reality.

We watch Storm Stories too. It's on The Weather Channel.

According the article it really distorted reality.

I remember back then the movie first came out,everyone in my area was talking about the fact they liked the movie then talked about all the mistakes.

[bookwormpeg]

They scare the heck out of me..hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, etc. Mother Nature is very strong & I don't mess with it. If the news says to leave, I'm the first one in the car! We live in an area where there are no basements......I guess we would huddle in the hallway....husband's aunt called last night from NE and said it was bad. The weather has been so crazy lately that it doesn't matter where you live it could happen to you. My heart goes out to all those who lost love ones and homes.

[Spirit Deer]

I remember being in a chat room with other writers when Twister came out. A bunch of us who are familiar with conditions likely to produce severe weather were talking to a writer in Riverton, Wyoming, who had never experienced tornado-producing weather. All of us from the midwest agreed she should watch the movie to get some idea of what it was like. Not the nonsense about standing next to a tornado and not being injured and all that, or the technology they were trying to put up into the twister, but how the skies look, the dead quiet before it hits, the green hue to the clouds, the total destruction of buildings, the picking up of buildings and heavy objects, the terror of it all, and stuff like that.

I agree with some of what the meteorologists said, but I also think the movie was realistic in many ways.

And I noticed the meteorologists couldn't get the facts right, either. There is no scene where the MCs (main characters) drove into a bridge abutment in hopes of escaping the tornado, not that I can recall anyway, and we've seen the movie many, many times. If they're going to criticize something, they should at least criticize what's actually there.

I do agree there's a lot of mistakes in that movie, but there are in all of them. It's called dramatic license.

[forHISglory]

Twister probably did warp reality, but my reality has never been in Kansas or OK.

Forgot to mention earlier that we had a tornado go thru our property before we moved to Iowa. It had been terribly hot, and then a cold front moved thru. I had gone to bed and was dreaming that someone was dropping big ice cubes on the roof. Then I became aware of hubby yelling. We both stumbled down the stairs, to see huge hail falling (maybe the ice cubes that i dreamed of???), and to see our trees being twisted around and snapping off. There was not time to get to the basement, but we managed to get from the second floor to the first floor. And then... it was over. It was such a fast freaky storm that no warnings had been given.

I tell you what..... we walked around (as did our neighbors) in a sort of shock, or a daze. It was unbelievable.

[shoiji]

Can't imagine going through that every year. Always thought I was ok living on the east coast. Unfortunately, with the weather changing the possibility of a tornado is not out of the question anymore. Scare the crap out of me.

[Spirit Deer]

We're not sorry we don't live where tornadoes are a frequent threat. We had our share of that and don't want to move back to where it's a problem.

[imagine]

What is really scary is seeing the news say your mom's town took a direct hit and then you can not get her on the phone the next day.

Thankfully she just had her phone off. Doesn't she know you are suppose to check in after a tornado hits your town.