Tornado Hiding Place Help

How about a closet or laundry room or bathroom?
I've heard of people getting into the bathtub and pulling a mattress over them selves.
Mostly you want to be away from windows and glass (mirrors too) so a walk in closet (or even a walk in pantry) or a laundry room can be a good spot.
I have no idea how safe being near the water heater might be.

We had a lot of tornadoes and warnings during the last 3 summers (highly unusual for New England). One place they suggested was the bathtub - yes, bathrooms usually have an outside wall, but the rooms are the smallest in the house (offering more support), the tub and tub wall offer some protection themselves, and they suggested putting some large cushions (as from a chaise lounge) or a twin mattress nearby. Put yourself and the kids in the tub, pull the mattress over your heads/bodies, and wait it out. I'd have concerns about the gas line on the water heater but, yes, do check with the fire department.

Another thing one of our meteorologists suggested was turning up the volume on the TV super loud - then you can hear them talking and giving the weather reports. We have basements, by and large, so the idea was that we could hear them discussing the path of the storm from a distance. Obviously you don't have time for that once you hear the "freight train" sound, but it's very comforting and informative if you do take shelter to wait. Also have a radio with batteries that tunes in to AM news stations. When we've lost power, that's our only source of news and just sound.

Would your local fire department be able to answer this question?
I do not know anything about real tornados, but a local department, would probably have suggestions based on their experiences.

Can you put in a storm shelter?

http://familysafeshelters.com/home/storm-shelters/tornado...

This is the kind they use in Florida and some they make look like a concrete igloo (pre- made and delivered).

I am sure there are companies that make similar ones to use in your state.

Personally I would stay clear of a gas water heater, on or off.

if you have warning i'd go somewhere else, but i gather that one of the most terrifying things about tornadoes is how little warning one has.
if digging a shelter isn't an option (and in that part of the world i'd spend the money to do it) then i think the bathtub with a mattress is probably your best option.
you may not have time to run around turning things off.
khairete
S.

My dad lives in Oklahoma - for some reason they rarely build basements in houses out there. He had one of those concrete shelters installed. Much of the cost was subsidized either by federal or state programs or a combination of both. You might want to check if your state or FEMA offers something like that. It is definitely a comfort when I go to visit him to know that shelter is there. Before that, there was really no safe spot in their house.

Where do you live, apartment, home, does it have a basement? Basement where it is most underground is always the safest place.

Thing is to figure this out you have to understand the structure of your home. Exterior walls are avoided not because of windows but that they are structurally the most vulnerable. In my house if I didn't have the basement I would be in the coat closet in the foyer because structurally it is the most sound.

So if you have a second floor and there is a closet under those stairs that would be best

What you could do is find a friend or neighbor who has a shelter or basement with a reinforced area. Then you could go hang out there while the storm rages and if you need to seek underground shelter you'd already be there.

This is what I tell my family. If you know a storm is coming and it has rotation in it or you have the possibility of a tornado it's better to see it coming and take precautions before the storm hits.

Go to that friends house and play games, cook snacks, watch TV and listen to a weather radio.

You have to find a safe place to go that is not your house evidently.

I say this because I grew up a couple of miles from Moore Oklahoma. I know what it's like to hear the sirens and go to the storm shelter. My mom and dad built one in the back yard and it was big, like 10X10 or 12X12.

We'd go sit on the covered patio and listen to the radio while playing games. It was the best time ever. When the sirens went off we'd scoot into the shelter.

Just a point that I have to make.

Last month Moore had another tornado. Actually the channel 4 helicopter got video of 3 on the ground at the same time. There was an extremely low chance of tornadoes with that storm but yet they still had several at the same time. If they'd have met up and gained strength they might have formed a much more destructive situation.

I go to my shelter place in plenty of time so that I'm not caught out in the storm. It's better to get there before the storm even hits your county. Why wait? It's coming and it has a potential risk for injury.

I live in one of the very few neighborhoods in the Dallas area where there are basement homes. Even with that option when we built our home, we opted for no basement.

Our lot sits low, we miss a lot of odd things with winds. Why? My hubby is keen on from which direction a storm typically comes from and how our house design is placed. Not saying we'd be completely safe, we've had several evenings in my pantry which is a large enclosed room within the home and safest. Our master closet goes underneath stairs but there is an outside window/wall there which makes it not as safe due to the wind direction.

I personally am not that scared of storms since I was raised in an area that had them often.

Now, my mom and stepdad in AL recently participated in a program where a shelter is built under the garage area. It holds about 6 ppl, water etc. they have storms often and it makes them feel safer. All they do is back out a car onto the drive, open shelter and it's ready if needed when they have warning. Most ppl in their neighborhood have this set up.

If you are in a high damage potential area, check something like that out. Again... Tubs are usually a good place with covering overhead.

In your situation, I'd rather take my chances in a tub covered than in a closet with a gas line to a water heater. Sounds like an odd place for a water heater but each area is different. Our water heaters are in the garage. We have 3 closets under stairs and still the pantry is best option per the wind and how storms flow into our area.

Good luck

Mona check with st Mary's church they may allow people to wait out tornadoes there. My daughter lived in sycamore the next town over and had the same problem.

Do you not have a basement or a crawl space (however unpleasant that may be)? Nothing else is truly safe. You can have a tornado shelter dug although that is not cheap. If you are in a community with a community center/pool (I don't mean your town, I mean your immediate development), the community center often has a shelter even if your home is built on a slab. If you are within 2-3 minutes of a school, they often will serve as the local shelter. I lived in KS for 3 years and HATE HATE HATE tornado season.