(ABOVE: Is it pretty, or pretty scary? I'm about 1 mile away from this tornado. It formed in the Palo Duro Canyon then climbed the canyon walls to reach the flat lands.)
WWT for March 8, 2009: Tornado Safety
Of these five locations, which TWO should you AVOID during a tornado?
A. Small closet
B. Basement
C. Garage
D. Ditch
E. Under a Bridge
I chose this particular question for today because I was recently asked about two of these locations during a recent school visit. A 4th grader wondered if the garage was a safe place to shelter from a tornado. The answer is no way! The garage door may be the first thing destroyed on a well-built home, and they can be pierced by airborne debris.
The infamous 1991 Kansas Turnpike tornado video (You Tube link where someone posted it) of a TV crew "taking shelter" under a bridge also provides a false perception that bridges are safe places to take cover. (The tornado in the video is actually a "weak" tornado, but even small ones can injur and can be quite scary.)
When tornado experts first saw the video they said more people would probably end up getting hurt or killed by tornadoes because the video inaccurately portrayed that bridges offered protection. The opposite is true. Bridges are especially dangerous as winds increase as air funnels between the bridge and embankment.
During the May 3, 1999 tornadoes in the Oklahoma City area, some people tried "hiding" under overpasses. Gruesome injuries and fatalities resulted. Folks parking their cars along the highway causes obvious other problems too.
Here's a great presentation on bridges vs tornadoes:
During Sunday's 9-10am newscast, send us an email to weekendamshow@kjrh.com with your name, city and guess as we're giving away stuff this month. Thanks for reading! GF