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I don't see how anyone who has been affected by wild weather can say they weren't fearful. I don't worry about it until "the time comes" although I must admit I do dread the upcoming season. Yep, I'll be fearful during an angry sky, but it will pass or do its thing. Either way, I'm ready.
I second the NOAA radio suggestion. I bought one several years ago. We usually have to go to the basement 2 or 3 times a year, although nothing has yet hit our neighborhood, or our last neighborhood.
If you do get a radio, make sure you don't get the very cheapest model. I believe it's the next one up that you can program NOT to sound an alarm (there will still be a light) for the alerts of your choice. The first, cheapest one I bought would wake us for severe thunderstorm warnings and flash flood warnings. I don't feel I have to be made aware of these in the middle of the night, and our new radio is set not to do so.
On Friday, I got the take shelter immediately warning. It's about the 5th time in 5 years. You are watching TV, the screen goes black and the Emergency Alert System come on and tells you to take shelter immediately. It doesn't matter if you are watching regular TV, cable, or On Demand. There is no time to drive to someplace, like for a hurricane. Immediately means right now. I live in an apartment complex in suburbia. There is no basement nor has there been one in any place I've ever lived as an adult. They tell you to go to a small inside room (I have a walk-in closet) and cover your head and/or get in the bathtub and cover yourself. If you are on the road they tell you to get in a ditch. I'm thinking if I don't die from the tornado, what happens if I can't get up out of the ditch or the bathtub after the tornado has passed? (I swear, they reported a mud slide somewhere on Friday and I was thinking it probably killed all of those people laying in a ditch trying to avoid a tornado when they were on the road, but I digress...)
The local weather guy, and they broadcast all night on Friday, said if you have a helmet, put it (not kidding) on so I'm thinking today's wussy kids that I make fun of for riding a tricycle/bike with a helmet on are going to have the last laugh when they all walk out of the wreckage in their pink Barbie tricycle helmets and I die because I can't get out of the bathtub after laying down in it.
Okay, but seriously, it's no joke. I'm thinking of getting a weather alert for my cell phone. What happens when these things come at 1:00A and you are asleep? I donate generously to folks like the Salvation Army after tornados hit. Last year, I drove through a town in the southwestern part of Virginia the day after a tornado crossed the Interstate and hit their rural town. I started to cry because the damage I could see from the road was really bad.
I would worry more about earthquakes. I can't imagine not trusting the ground you are standing on.
There is no way I sleep through thunder and that's the first noise one hears if dangerous weather is coming. I have a weather alert and used to use it during the night, but the dang thing goes off for any of the surrounding counties and therefore, it may be many miles away from me. I quit that quickly and rely on my light sleeping nature. I then get up, turn on the TV or weather alert and find out what's going on and which way the storm is heading. If the potential for a tornado to form is possible, I don't wait until the warning is announced. I head for the storm shelter because a tornado can form without any warning at all. For me, it's just more peace of mind to be "down under" just in case.
That's funny about the helmet because before I had my tornado shelter, I had my kids put on helmets and get in the hall. My daughter wore my son's football one and my son wore his motorcycle one. They were very young and the reason he had the motorcycle helmet is because he was just learning to ride a two-wheeler when he was three and my daughter, six at the time, found it at a neighbor's garage sale for $1.00 and bought if for her brother. Too cute!
They complained to me every time I got them out of bed, made them put on the helmets and covered them with many quilts for protection. They said, "Please let us sleep." I replied, "You can sleep in the hall." Ha ha! Of course, there were times when I "stuffed" them in the closet.
That tornado last year in southwest VA ... Wasn't it in Wythe County?
I've been in a California quake and it was scary. Honestly though, I'd move back there if I could afford it. Since I've experience both (well, actually, I've never been in a tornado), I'm more comfortable with the quakes that the sky act fierce. Geez! Even high winds can do some major devastation and kill people; it doesn't have to be a funnel.
Are you sure you can't set it to go off just for your county? Even the cheap one I bought at first did that(see my post above, that went up the same time as yours).
I second the NOAA radio suggestion. I bought one several years ago. We usually have to go to the basement 2 or 3 times a year, although nothing has yet hit our neighborhood, or our last neighborhood.
If you do get a radio, make sure you don't get the very cheapest model. I believe it's the next one up that you can program NOT to sound an alarm (there will still be a light) for the alerts of your choice. The first, cheapest one I bought would wake us for severe thunderstorm warnings and flash flood warnings. I don't feel I have to be made aware of these in the middle of the night, and our new radio is set not to do so.
I guess they're improved the NOAA radios. The one I have is 33-years old and I also found one a few years ago at a garage sale for $.50. It doesn't have the alert, but it comes in handy when I'm in the cellar. I can listen to it and hear what's going on above ground. After I moved to Texas, I asked for a radio for Mother's Day, the first spring I was here.
[quote=earthlyfather;23251251]Went through a Tornado - less than a quarter-mile off the main path -about 10 years ago. Sustained some minor damage to the home, and the neighborhood was covered in downed trees. Moved 70~ miles north from Metro-Atlanta a couple of years later, though the move was unrelated.
Tornado warning sirens went off in our community the other night about 11 PM. We sit on a ridge too. Frankly, beyond the moment, I haven't given fear of Tornados much thought.
Expect it is like SoCalians not being overly fearful of the big one.
And, it is the collision of cold and warm air, not necessarily humidity that spawns Tornados.[/quot
That is correct, but the warm air is humid. I've never heard any differently.
I forgot to mention in my last post about the weather radio. We got one a few years ago and it stayed on all the time so we would be prepared. It would go off in the night....or at any time....that there was an "Amber Alert." Now, I'm not saying those are not important, but we wanted to hear about the weather, not missing children.
It eventually stopped working and we have never replaced it.
Those Amber Alerts are annoying. I understand how important they are, but I'm unlikely to see a missing child in my bedroom at 2:30 AM! They're very infrequent though. And I'm pretty sure I was able to disable the sound alert on that one too.
Hey Curmudgeon, when you said life was an "e" ticket, I immediately thought of the ticket books at Disneyland. The "e" tickets were always the least favorite rides. Don't know if that's what you were referring to, but it brought back a lot of memories. I think I still have some unused "e" tickets!!
LOL! I'm afraid you have it backward. The 'A' tickets were the least desireable rides. The 'E' tickets were the best rides.
One of my fondest childhood memories was being at Disneyland opening weekend a month before my 10th birthday. Went there regularly thereafter back when it was affordable.
I don't see how anyone who has been affected by wild weather can say they weren't fearful. I don't worry about it until "the time comes" although I must admit I do dread the upcoming season. Yep, I'll be fearful during an angry sky, but it will pass or do its thing. Either way, I'm ready.
Perhaps I'm just numb between the ears but I tend to think of things in terms of grand adventures. I'll live until I die, whenever and however that happens. Until then I just enjoy the ride. After "that" comes I'll be the last one to worry about it.
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(I swear, they reported a mud slide somewhere on Friday and I was thinking it probably killed all of those people laying in a ditch trying to avoid a tornado when they were on the road, but I digress...) 
Frankly, beyond the moment, I haven't given fear of Tornados much thought.
Weather radio
