OT: where would you go in a tornado?

(On phone forgive typos)

It's that time of year and with the Oklahoma tornado im wondering.

Where would you seek shelter in a tornado?

We have a bathroom that is the innermost room with no exterior wall or window. We have special cushions I bought just in case to cover us up too

This is an issue since where I live we get them too, infrequently but they happen.
We have a basement bathroom like you HOWEVER mom is in a wheelchair and we can't get her down to the basement plus she has bad claustrophobia and with her dementia I can't see taking her there. There is no room upstairs that doesn't have a big window.

I'd rather not think about it. The siren is about 200 feet from the house,
but the house is on a slab; bathroom on an outside wall-with a skylight!
Pretty much curtains for the frog family.

BlackSpinner wrote:This is an issue since where I live we get them too, infrequently but they happen.
We have a basement bathroom like you HOWEVER mom is in a wheelchair and we can't get her down to the basement plus she has bad claustrophobia and with her dementia I can't see taking her there. There is no room upstairs that doesn't have a big window.

That's scary! We're in an area that does get quite a few tornadoes a year.

Last year there were several just south of us. We came close, with warnings and high winds and massive amounts of rain, but the city of Edmonton hasn't been hit since '88, at that time it missed my SIL house by 2 blocks.

BlackSpinner wrote:Last year there were several just south of us. We came close, with warnings and high winds and massive amounts of rain, but the city of Edmonton hasn't been hit since '88, at that time it missed my SIL house by 2 blocks.

That's horrible We've been hit outside of town a lot but in 2002 we had a huge tornado tear through town. In 2008 we had a huge flood too

Yikes! We're in the flood plain, too.
Can't win --ever!

chunkyfrog wrote:Yikes! We're in the flood plain, too.
Can't win --ever!

LOL same here!! Hell from the sky or fury from the river!!!

we don't get big tornadoes that you see coming. typically they drop out of a bad thunderstorm, so there is almost no time to react. a couple years ago we had one that touched down about a mile after it went by us. sitting ducks in a mobile home with nowhere to hide.

Basement, good thing you are already 6 feet under, been thru one at a local park in the 50's as a kid we took refuge in a shelter, it wasn't two bad, no-one was killed. Jim

In my parent's house I always thought under the basement stairs would be safe, UNTIL A STEP BROKE WHEN I WAS WALKING DOWN THEM,
In a 150 year old house the basements probably not the best place after all… but I guess if it is a choice between rooms with windows and a basement, the basement wins.

simplyme wrote:In my parent's house I always thought under the basement stairs would be safe, UNTIL A STEP BROKE WHEN I WAS WALKING DOWN THEM,
In a 150 year old house the basements probably not the best place after all… but I guess if it is a choice between rooms with windows and a basement, the basement wins.

Yeah. I think if it's windows, outside, or underground. Underground will always be the safest place.

During the day if a tornado ever hits there's a church across the way and it might be safest for us to go in there and into the basement

I am from Joplin, Mo. I watched from the church bell tower as a tornado destroyed the building my Dad was in back in '70. I have huddled in a mass of human terror in the middle of our single story home as the windows were smashed out and parts of the roof were ripped off. we had to use a push broom to get the hail out of the house.
I personally can name nine acquaintances and relatives killed by tornadoes.
I personally chose to hide in California.

salton wrote:I am from Joplin, Mo. I watched from the church bell tower as a tornado destroyed the building my Dad was in back in '70. I have huddled in a mass of human terror in the middle of our single story home as the windows were smashed out and parts of the roof were ripped off. we had to use a push broom to get the hail out of the house.
I personally can name nine acquaintances and relatives killed by tornadoes.
I personally chose to hide in California.

I've read this thread, and I'm so thankful I can't relate. I'm from and currently reside in CA, and I can't imagine a good place to hide in my home. Thankfully, its not an issue here.

I'll take earthquakes over a tornado any day. At least there isn't an annual earthquake season! So scary.

greatunclebill wrote:we don't get big tornadoes that you see coming. typically they drop out of a bad thunderstorm, so there is almost no time to react.

Ours are like that too. Every time there is a possibility of a big thunderstorm we get "tornado warnings and watches".