[dillywho]

ArmyGuy is right. I come from the West Texas Panhandle, and going outside is the worst thing you can do unless you're heading to a storm shelter behind your house or live in a mobile home. Get into an inside room (no windows), preferably something like your bathtub, taking all the items he mentioned. When a monster tornado hit Lubbock in May of 1970, some of the students at one of the Texas Tech dorms were saved because they got under a sink and held on to the pipes. That one killed 26, many hurt, and left thousands homeless. Many were saved only because it occurred at 10:00 at night and most were home and had not yet gone to bed. As he said, priority is protecting your head. Even simple objects become deadly projectiles. Even though your house is rated to withstand winds in excess of say 120 mph, that is referring to straight winds as in a hurricane. Tornadoes create a vacuum and literally suck things apart.

It seems strange to me not to have the sirens. This time of year back there, they are an almost daily occurrence. Unfortunately, unlike hurricanes, you usually have only minutes to prepare, not days. When they say, "Take cover!", you take cover and don't mess around about it. If the thing never touches down...that's great and there is no harm done. A little inconvenience, perhaps, but that's all. A tornado actually hitting after a warning is totally unpredictable, it may or may not....they don't watch TV, listen to the radio, or care what the computers say. They just do whatever they do.