What should you do if a tornado hits your home?

Question

I live in Florida and realized that I have no idea what to do if there is a tornado watch, warning, or if one hits my home. I have two small children- what should I do to prepare? What should I do if one hits my home?

Answer 1

Good Question! This answer relieved my stress;I know this is 2 much but nuthn is ever 2 much for occassins like this:

Though tornadoes can strike in an instant, there are precautions and preventative measures that you can take in order to increase the chances of surviving a tornado. Authorities such as the Storm Prediction Center advise having a tornado plan. When a tornado warning is issued, going to a basement or an interior first-floor room of a sturdy building greatly increases chances of survival. In tornado-prone areas, many buildings have storm cellars on the property. These underground refuges have saved thousands of lives.

Tornado Safety
Develop a severe weather action plan and have frequent drills,
Everyone should be inspected and tornado shelter areas designated by a registered engineer or architect. Basements offer the best protection. Schools without basements should use interior rooms and hallways on the lowest floor and away from windows.
Those responsible for activating the plan should monitor weather information from NOAA Weather Radio and local radio/television.
Make sure someone knows how to turn off electricity and gas in the event the home is damaged.
Keep children at their recent location beyond regular hours if threatening weather is expected. Children are safer at home than in a bus or car.
Lunches or assemblies in large rooms should be delayed if severe weather is anticipated.Move everyone quickly into interior rooms or hallways on the lowest floor. Have them assume the tornado protection position

Some countries have meteorological agencies which distribute tornado forecasts and increase levels of alert of a possible tornado (such as tornado watches and warnings in the United States and Canada). Weather radios provide alarm when increased tornadic threat is detected for your local area, though these are mainly available only in the United States.

Unless the tornado is far away, meteorologists advise that drivers park their vehicles far to the side of the road (so as not to block emergency traffic), and find a sturdy shelter. If no sturdy shelter is nearby, getting low in a ditch is the next best option. Highway overpasses are extremely bad shelter during tornadoes
Families should be prepared for all hazards that affect their area. NOAA's National Weather Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the American Red Cross urge each family to develop a family disaster plan.

Where will your family be when disaster strikes? They could be anywhere - at work, at school, or in the car. How will you find each other? Will you know if your children are safe? Disasters may force you to evacuate your neighborhood or confine you to your home. What would you do if basic services - water, gas, electricity or telephones - were cut off?
Follow these basic steps to develop a family disaster plan...
I.Gather information about hazards.
Contact your local National Weather Service office, emergency management or civil defense office, and American Red Cross chapter. Find out what type of disasters could occur and how you should respond. Learn your community's warning signals and evacuation plans.
II.Meet with your family to create a plan.
Discuss the information you have gathered. Pick two places to meet: a spot outside your home for an emergency, such as fire, and a place away from your neighborhood in case you can't return home. Choose an out-of-state friend as your "family check-in contact" for everyone to call if the family gets separated. Discuss what you would do if advised to evacuate.
III.Implement your plan
(1) Post emergency telephone numbers by phones; (2) Install safety features in your house, such as smoke detectors and fire extinguishers; (3) Inspect your home for potential hazards (such as items that can move, fall, break, or catch fire) and correct them; (4) Have your family learn basic safety measures, such as CPR and first aid; how to use a fire extinguisher; and how and when to turn off water, gas, and electricity in your home; (5) Teach children how and when to call 911 or your local Emergency Medical Services number; (6) Keep enough supplies in your home to meet your needs for at least three days. Assemble a disaster supplies kit with items you may need in case of an evacuation. Store these supplies in sturdy, easy-to-carry containers, such as backpacks or duffle bags. Keep important family documents in a waterproof container. Keep a smaller disaster supplies kit in the trunk of your car.

A DISASTER SUPPLIES KIT SHOULD INCLUDE:
A 3-day supply of water (one gallon per person per day) and food that won't spoil one change of clothing and footwear per person one blanket or sleeping bag per person a first-aid kit, including prescription medicines emergency tools, including a battery-powered NOAA Weather Radio and a portable radio, flashlight, and plenty of extra batteries an extra set of car keys and a credit card or cash special items for infant, elderly, or disabled family members.

Answer 2

First, it is important to note the difference between watch and warning. A Tornado Watch means that conditions are favorable for the formation of tornadic storms within one to two hours. A watch means "pay attention." Be alert to changing weather conditions and have a method of receiving warnings. A Tornado Warning means that a tornado has been spotted or a storm has been detected in which tornado formation is immenant. A warning means "take action now." Put your emergency plan into action.
Emergency Plan:
You will need...
-An emergency kit consisting of a flashlight, nonperishable food, water, batteries, first aid kit. Other items to include would be blankets, shoes, coats.
-A shelter plan. If you have a basement, this is where you should go. Choose a location that is under something heavy (a pool table) or in a reinforced location (a room where there are a lot of pipes, for example). If you do not have a basement, choose a location in the center part of the lowest floor, preferrably a closet or bathroom. The goal is to put as many walls between you and the tornado as possible. Do not bother opening windows or sitting in the southwest corner. These are myths. If you are in a mobile home, you need a plan to get out! Lying in the ditch is better than being in the mobile home. Many mobile home parks have community shelters. You may also set up a plan with a friend who has a home to hurry and take shelter with them. Another option is building an outdoor storm shelter.
-A communication stragety. Have a plan for getting word of the warning out to the rest of your family or neighbors who may not hear it. Don't spend much time calling everyone in town, but rather if there is someone who needs to be home and isn't, have a way of contacting them. After the tornado hits, it is helpful to have a central location to meet to make sure everyone is okay.

I hope this helps! The main goal is be prepared and be informed.

Here is an NWS website with much more severe weather safety information that you may browse at your leisure:
http://www.weather.gov/os/severeweather/index.shtml

Answer 3

you should have an emergency kit and plan already set up, and put away in these cases. dont worry about watches too much, they just tell you that the conditions are favorable for a tornado to spawn. warnings tell you that rotation in a cell have been spotted and everything in the area or path of storm should prepare and seek shelter. a room away from the exterior walls would be best or a basement. if you dont have a basement or a room like that, go to the room with no windows. if all rooms have windows. find a closest or the strongest room in house, get down on ground and throw a mattress or something over you to protect from falling and flying debris. an emergency kit could include batteries, candles, and a radio. on the news they have been talking about the NOAA weather radio alot. this would be excellent to get. i live about 45 minutes from most western part of central florida that was hit. and about 15 minutes from where christmas tornados hit. so we are now probably going to get a NOAA radio now. you just plug in, and they will alert you whenever a warning has been issued. from what i was hearing, people who had a NOAA radio had about 10 minutes of warning before the storm hit.

www.quakekare.com
www.areyouprepared.com
www.homelandpreparedness.com

Answer 4

If a warning is issued or if threatening weather approaches:
In a home or building, move to a pre-designated shelter, such as a basement.
If an underground shelter is not available, move to an interior room or hallway on the lowest floor and get under a sturdy piece of furniture.
Stay away from windows.
Get out of automobiles.
Do not try to outrun a tornado in your car.
If caught outside or in a vehicle, lie flat in a ditch or depression.
Mobile homes, even if tied down, offer little protection from tornadoes, and should be abandoned.

from

www.jacksonville.com/stormtrack/tornadoes.shtml

Answer 5

With every day pass, our country is getting into more and more trouble. The inflation, unemployment and falling value of dollar are the main concern for our Government but authorities are just sleeping, they don’t want to face the fact. Media is also involve in it, they are force to stop showing the real economic situation to the people. I start getting more concern about my future as well as my family after watching the response of our Government for the people that affected by hurricane Katrina.

According to recent studies made by World Bank, the coming crisis will be far worse than initially predicted. So if you're already preparing for the crisis (or haven't started yet) make sure you watch this video at http://www.familysurvival.tv and discover the 4 BIG issues you'll have to deal with when the crisis hits, and how to solve them fast (before the disaster strikes your town!) without spending $1,000s on overrated items and useless survival books.

Answer 6

I dont view it as a miracle, and to do as such is selfish. What about your neighbors? So you think God prefers you over them? Its called physics, its called math, ITS SCIENCE! The answer is that your trailer didn't meet the scientifc pre-requisites to be flipped or destroyed, so it wasnt. No miricle there. Good luck prehaps, but no miracle.

Answer 7

open a couple of windows - torandos cause the pressure outside to be greater then what is inside the home and will cause all of your windows to blow out if they are all shut and the house pressure can not equalize.

get away from the windows and go into a hallway or bathroom with no windows, or into a basement.