How much does living in a high tornado risk area affect your daily life? (Atlanta: apartment, vs)

[MathmanMathman]

When any storm came, I kept a wary eye on the conditions and what area would provide some protection.

[ATLTJL]

I think the question is wrong, it's like asking how much do rabid grizzly bears affect your daily life. The answer is, of course, zero. But on that day when a rabid grizzly bear is wandering around your yard, it affects you very much.

Tornadoes affect daily life in metro Atlanta zero. But when they do happen, they can be a big deal. My advice would be to just make sure that you have somewhere to go. The chance of getting struck by a tornado in this area are extremely remote, but when there are warnings all around you and you have nowhere to hide, you can feel like a sitting duck. That's the way I feel because I don't have a basement. When I see houses destroyed by tornadoes on TV, it doesn't really look like people hiding in a downstairs bathroom or closet fared very well, and that's all I have. If I had it to do again, I'd probably more strongly consider getting a house with a basement.

The good thing is tornado tracking technology has gotten so good that meteorologists are now telling people on specific streets to seek cover. The days of just issuing tornado warning for entire counties for 4 hours are over. They still do that, but it's much easier to find out if you actually need to take cover nowadays.

[atl1221]

The radar technology is so good now that they can pinpoint exact streets where the tornado or rotation is occurring. Get a radio and tune to WSB-TV AM750 or 95.5 FM. If there is severe weather they will be talking about it non-stop and will tell you the exact areas of danger.

[Caleb Longstreet]

Originally Posted by Nomad78

I have a job offer in Cartersville and my wife is very concerned that is an area that has very high risk for tornadoes. We would be moving from Maryland where tornadoes are rare... So how much does it affect your daily life? Let's say... How many times a year do you have to run to your basement because of a tornado watch, warning or alert? Would it help living in Marietta which has a moderate risk as opposed to Cartersville (very high). It's a nice offer but this issue with the tornadoes is close to being a deal breaker, any advise from the locals would be greatly apprecieated!!

Zero. None, nada. We cross those bridges when we come to them....hurricane Sandy beat up Maryland pretty good, were you worried about Hurricanes prior to that storm's arrival?

Doppler Radar is very, very good now and we have tornado warning systems in place plus, a non-stop, model de jour on every news station belting out the weather so, you should be good to go. If you hear the sirens, take cover. If you don't, live your life.

[dblackga]

It's just like a house fire -- you think about it, you make a plan, make sure everyone knows the plan -- and then don't worry about it. The chances are pretty darn good that you will NEVER need the plan. Same with tornadoes. Identify a place in the house to hunker down IF you need to, make sure everyone knows, and then don't worry about it.

Everywhere has issues: South Florida and the Gulf has hurricanes. The north has blizzards. California has earthquakes. The Midwest has blizzards AND tornadoes. In 25 years of living in Atlanta, I've only done a tornado hunker-down once, and even then, it missed us. While I lived in South Florida for 6 years, I put up hurricane shutters four times. Life goes on.

PS: I guarantee you that your wife's primary concern with Cartersville isn't tornadoes. That's the excuse -- not the reason.

[demonta4]

Tornadoes aren't really even common here. There is a small area in NW Georgia (where Cartersville is) where tornadoes can happen, but we have the best weather radars in the world (WSB and Weather Channel) so you shouldn't worry too much. You should probably move to Marietta for easier access to Atlanta, but not because of tornadoes.

[ElleKaye]

I lived in Kennesaw and only got in the downstairs closet once because of tornado sirens. I visited a friend here in Vinings around 2000 and a tornado came through Marietta and hopped over to Dunwoody. It also put one helluva beating with hail on my car.

Overall though, I'd say tornadoes are one of my least weather concern here. I'm more concerned about trees falling when it rains.

If Cartersville is high risk, then you could move a bit further south like to Ackworth, Kennesaw, Marietta, or Smyrna. You would have a reverse commute so even though further away, your ride would be sweet.

[netdragon]

They always seem to skip us in the Vinings area. I know there was one way way back on Windy Hill, but they always seem to go to the North of us, through North Cobb or Cherokee and then Alpharetta, or through the Southern part of the metro. Not sure why. We're very hilly here but there's hills everywhere..

having a comforter on the ready is a good idea if hail is coming. I'm too lazy to pull it into the garage which has toys and such in the empty spot, so I throw a comforter on it when hail threatens and weight it down. Works wonders.

[Saintmarks]

Tornadoes, like others have mentioned, are something to be aware of and be prepared for (as in having a plan) but it isn't something to cloud your daily life (pun intended). I would think the risk of a tornado hitting your home in Cartersville is about as good as a north moving hurricane veering inland at Hampton Roads, churning up Chesapeake Bay and slamming you in Maryland. Could happen, probably has happened before, but you don't chart your life around it.

The main reason I want to pipe up here is to counter some of the anecdotal evidence being listed. Tornadoes can happen in any part of the state of Georgia. To think that there is a world of difference between Marietta and Cartersville meteorologically speaking when they are wheat? 20 miles apart? There isn't some great mountain range or fault line or any other geographical barrier between the two.... just that the odds are slightly greater to the northwest of the state and go down incrementally as you go further east and south. To pick one corner of the metroplex as less prone is somewhat naive. Buckhead was hit pretty hard back in the 70s, columns were knocked down on the governor's mansion. Downtown was hit just a few years ago, the Georgia Dome got a hole in the roof, almost half the windows in the Peachtree Plaza were blown out.

So, they happen. But it shouldn't cause great concern. Neither should you be lulled into a false sense that one corner of the metro area is drastically better in this regard than another.

[netdragon]

I had just left the office before the big one in downtown Atlanta years back (last decade, can't remember the year but the same one the poster above mentioned took out the GA Dome roof). A janitor lady was telling me the next day about going outside, then the tornado hitting, and luckily getting back inside amongst flying debris and having to wait it out. She saw glass flying around and a dumpster rolling down the street, pushed by the wind. That night, the floor of a 20 story up catwalk in the Peachtree Center building complex collapsed (it has since been replaced, but you wouldn't find me walking on that one)

A few years later, a tornado-bearing storm knocked a tree down next to my investment property in Atlanta, ripping the electrical line mast off of it.

I saw some nasty tornado damage once in Alpharetta, where a car wash had been destroyed by a tornado and a man killed who made the bad decision to run from it during the tornado (probably would have been safer staying inside, collapsing roof and all)