Tornado Watch
 

And I thought the weather in Florida was just perfect.

My weather radio is working again. The radio woke me up at 5:30 AM to announce a tornado watch (not a warning, a watch).

We're expecting high winds. The people with Christmas decorations outside should probably make sure they're well secured.

I heard it too....kept hitting the alarm clock snooze button....until the loud voice woke me up!

Same here....received the tornado watch over the Midland radio early this morning....5:42 a.m..... I think.

tornado
 

Haven't moved there yet...will be in January. I have read this thread to see snakes in lanai (yuk!) but now..tornado's??? I lived in Michigan and we had basements to hide in, here it is all first floor. Where does one go when you hear a siren (do they have them, or is it only in radio?)????? If there is a really bad one, how do you survive? Didn't think of this when we were buying.

We were hit in Feb. 2007 by a tornado that went thru TV and there was ALOT of homes totaled here including mine. I've been here 4yrs and there's been that one PLUS 4 warnings (including todays) in 4 yrs. When there is a tornado here I've been told to lie in between 2 walls that have no windows,(we in the past used the small hall near the guest bdrm & bath and closed the door to the bdrm. (beware of flying glass from windows) Good Luck to all!

I lived in a trailer in tornado alley for a few years. We were told to get in the bathtub. Go to the center of the house away from all windows. At TV, I would go to my walk in closet. When driving out on the road, find a ditch to lie in. Do not go under a bridge.

I find this thread very interesting, Bare, since we live in the Upper Midwest and have a VERY healthy respect for tornados. I saw, within the last week or two, a villa advertised for sale in TV's which had a tornado shelter in the garage floor. I thought what the heck is that..., so I did some googling and came up with this link.

http://www.stormsheltersofnorthwestflorida.com/id7.html

Now I want Mr. Peachie to rip out our garage floor and have one installed, (poor guy), but I want the best protection available from those beasts. :ohdear:

Tornado shelter
 

Thanks for the info. I, also, have a high respect for tornadoes. If you get one installed, please let me know how you made out.

The listing in Villages Real Estate featuring the shelter is #205808 and is in Sunset Pointe. I think they have a good reason to be wary after the tornado that went through the area.

Tornado Shelter question......
 

OMG..... as a Hurricane Andrew survivor (8/92) I have great respect for Florida's Storms.

If you have a tornado shelter and hide inside it..... and a tornado hits the house..... wouldn't the debris cover the shelter entrance and trap the inhibitants ?? :eek:

A house in TV with a tornado shelter in the garage floor, ... how interesting. I didn't know that was possible.

We started looking for a house in TV in February 2007. The Villages Real Estate Agent told us to come back the following day to look at more houses. When we returned the next day, we saw all the devastation. The agent informed us that some of the houses he wanted to show us had been demolished.

Still, that didn't deter us from buying a home in TV. Although we made sure it was block construction.

When there is a tornado watch, I just head for the master bedroom walk-in closet. It is really large and has lots of room for my dogs, cat, cat crate, pillows, blankets, food, flashlight, books, bottled water, you get the idea.

The first watch I hauled everything into the closet and waited breathlessly for something to happen. A friend who has a weather radio promised to call if the watch changed into a warning. Nothing happened, thank goodness. Then we went out and bought a weather radio and had it programmed by the local fire department.

The second watch I put everything in the closet and stayed in bed, but nervously. Now I've gotten used to tornado watches. Today at 6 AM I put outside patio furniture in the garage and took a few precautions. But tornado watches seem to be a fact of life in Florida and I've gotten somewhat used to them.

YIKES.....my first thought as well CIB
 

After the devastation of a tornado, there is an immediate scouring of the area for survivors by emergency workers. I would imagine one would advise one's friends of the shelter and ask that they advise workers to check the safety shelter. Since witnessing the devastation of a tornado, I realize that all the debris is not heaped over one shelter, it is scattered over miles and miles. (A cellphone is a good thing to take with to the shelter...)

So if you get the shelter, better get the large one! You will be a POPULAR person when that radio goes off! ;)

I wouldn't worry about being found in the shelter - if your house did collapse and bury the shelter with debris, remember you'd be in the debris if you were in an interior closet. I'd rather chance being alive in the shelter even for a day or so.

Now something else to consider buying. If the door is narrow enough to fit between the car's wheels, it could be installed in the garage and double as one of those pits you see in garages sometimes to change oil!

I agree, Barb, to each their own. We have to make the best decision for each case. My thought is that if the large debris falls on the closet or bathroom, then what? :shrug: I am going from personal experience in that my sister and her husband, their daughter and grandchildren, (visiting at the time), barely escaped January 7, 2007 when the rare F-3 winter tornado that hit their community, put their three flue chimney right through the living floor into the lower level where they had taken refuge. It landed three feet away from all of them. Their home and many others were gone but they survived. There by the grace of God...! I'm determined not to be paranoid about tornados but I never want to take them for granted.

We went out last night and bought a weather radio (Midland, $29.95 on sale at Walgreens) and it went off this morning. I turned on the TV, I listened to the weather voice on the radio, peeked out the window... It wasn't raining outside and there was no doppler radar anywhere near Florida. All the red areas were in the Gulf of Mexico. This is my first weather radio (except for the one in the car), so I didn't know what to expect. Does this kind of 'false alarm' happen often? :shrug:

Lovin' my sleep,
Judy the Snoozer

Yes we did have a Tornado in 2007 , but keep in mind that the last Tornado before that in this area was in the 50's.......Law of averages are on your side . However there is the possibility that your not average .......

under the bed fumar

The winter tornado in '07 I was referring to Fumar, was in the Upper Midwest.
A 60 degree day that wreaked havoc in an area that should have been 20 degrees or less. Definitely not average, I have to agree. ;)

This WAS NOT a false alarm.....it was a tornado watch. This means conditions are right that a tornado may occurr, and you should be aware. When you get tornado warning....find a hole and crawl in.

It was definitely not a false alarm!! www.weather.com also advised of a Tornado Watch for this area. As Bogie pointed out, it doesn't mean that a tornado will occur, just that the conditions have potential.

I hope my Weather Radio never advises me there is a Tornado Warning.

In the closet
Barefoot

Oh I don't know which would be worse...buried alive in a bomb shelter replica or blowing around 100 feet up in the air in a funnel.

As a Mid-westerner who lived most of her adult life in the San Francisco Bay Area, I think I choose an earthquake.

Uh oh. I just went back to bed this morning. Shouldn't I have gone back to bed?
Won't the weather radio warn me again when it's a real warning? Should we get in the closet when we get a tornado watch?
Should we open the windows on the side away from the tornado? (That's what I've always been told)
What do you all do when you get a tornado watch (not warning)?

I'm from the Chicago area and we probably get 10-15 tornado watches each year. I realize everybody is nervous because of the 2007 tornado, and tornados are certainly dangerous, but as an earlier member commented, the last tornado in the area was in the 50's. Quite honestly, with Florida being the lightning capital, that seems like a bigger concern. But ya know what? I just can't live in fear that something might happen when the chances are so remote. I've had a good life and I'm here in paradise. Life is good!

Macgolfnut, that's the truth! I watched a tornado attack Salt Lake City from our condo on the 17th floor. The big question was: Where should I go? The closet? The laundry room? The hallway? The stairwell? Stupidly, I stayed (slack-jawed and glassy-eyed) at the huge window where I could keep an eye on it. The tornado turned away from us at the last minute (about a block away) and hit the Delta Center (where the Utah Jazz play) and many of the downtown hotels. Who would ever anticipate a tornado in the mountains? :shrug:

Yes, Judy, the weather radio will wake you up again if the tornado watch turns into a warning. :eek:

If we get a tornado watch, I just secure everything that would blow around (like patio furniture). I usually put bottled water and the cat crate in the walk-in closet. Then I go back to bed and hope for the best. :mornincoffee:

Thanks for the tip, Bare!
I'll get an emergency pack together and keep it in the closet. We always had an emergency pack for earthquakes in Utah, and all the schools had earthquake drills and classroom emergency supplies. I guess I was too complacent, because I thought I'd have plenty of time if I got a warning from the weather radio. (No warnings with earthquakes, and they always talked about how we were "due" for "the big one"!) This shouldn't be any different.
Thanks again!