Tornado Safety... 

What You Need to Know Now!

Listen to NOAA Weather Radio or commercial radio/television for tornado warnings and instructions. If you hear a "Tornado Warning" or a storm threatens, seek safety immediately in a pre-designated shelter or basement.

Indoors:

  • Abandon mobile homes, since they offer little protection even when tied down.
  • Go to a basement or interior room on the lowest floor (bathroom or closet without windows, under stairs). Get under a sturdy piece of furniture.
  • Cover yourself with a mattress or blanket

If you have time:

  • Put bicycle helmets on kids
  • Put on sturdy shoes
  • Find your purse/wallet and keys; keep them with you
  • Put infants in carseats
  • Put collars and ID tags on pets

DO NOT open your windows.

In a vehicle:

  • If the roads and traffic permit free movement, it is almost always possible to outrun a tornado.
  • If you can see the tornado and can tell which way it is moving, drive perpendicular to its movement.
  • If there is time, abandon your car and get into a permanent building.
  • DO NOT hide under overpasses - they provide no shelter and increases your danger.
  • Lie flat in a ditch (last-resort).

Outdoors:

  • Find a culvert or cave.
  • Find something to hang onto.
  • Lie flat in a ditch.
  • Cover your head.

 

 

TORNADO WATCH:
Tornadoes are possible in your area. Remain alert for approaching storms.

TORNADO WARNING:
A tornado has been sighted or indicated by weather radar - take necessary precautions at once!

 

Lightning — The Underrated Killer

In the United States, there are an estimated 25 million lightning flashes each year. During the past 30 years, lightning has killed 62 people on average per year. This ties the average of 62 deaths per year caused by tornadoes. Yet because lightning usually claims only one or two victims at a time and does not cause mass destruction of property, it is underrated as a risk. While documented lightning injuries in the United States average about 300 per year, undocumented injuries likely much higher.

  • Watch for Developing Thunderstorms: Thuderstorms are most likely to form on spring or summer days, but they can occur year round. As the sun heats the air, pockets of warmer air start to rise and cumulus clouds form. Continued heating can cause these clouds to grow vertically into towering cumulus clouds, often the first sign of a developing thunderstorm.

  • An Approaching Thunderstorm: When to Seek Safe Shelter: Lightning can strike as far as 10 miles from area where it is raining. That's about the distance you can hear thunder. If you can hear thunder, you are within striking distance. Seek safe shelter immediately.

  • Outdoor Activities: Minimize the Risk of Being Struck: Most lightning deaths and injuries occur in the summer. Where organized outdoor sports activities take place, coaches, counselors and other adults must stop activities at the first roar of thunder to ensure everyone time to get a large building or enclosed vehicle. Leaders of outdoors events should have a written plan that all staff are aware of and enforce.

  • Indoor Activities: Things to Avoid: Inside building, stay off corded phones, computers and other electrical equipment that put you in direct contact with electricity. Stay away from pools, indoor or outdoor, tubs, showers and other plumbing. Buy surge suppressors for key equipment. Install ground fault protectors on circuits near water or outdoors. When inside, wait 30 minutes after the last strike, before going out again.

  • Helping a Lightning Strike Victim: If a person is struck by lightning, call 911 and get medical care immediately. Cardiac arrest and irregularities, burns, and nerve damage are common in cases where people are struck by lightning. However, with proper treatment, including CPR if necessary, most victims survive a lightning strike. You are in no danger helping a lightning victim. The charge will not affect you.

  • Summary: Lightning id dangerous. With common sense, you can greatly increase your safety and the safety of those you are with. At the first clap of thunder, go a large building or fully enclosed vehicle and wait 30 minutes after the last clap of thunder to back outside.

When Thunder Roars, Go Indoors!

 

 

Flash Flood Safety

Flash floods are the Number One weather-related killer in the United States. Nearly half of all flash flood fatalities are auto-related! Listen to NOAA Weather Radio or commercial radio/television to stay informed about flash flood watches, warnings and advisories. You may have only SECONDS to act!

 

Flash floods occur within a few minutes or hours of excessive rainfall, a dam or levee failure, or a sudden release of water held by an ice jam.

Indoors

  • Abandon your home immediately if evacuation is recommended, before access is cut off by flood water.
  • Get to higher ground.

Just six inches of fast-moving flood water can knock you off your feet, and a depth of two feet will float your car! NEVER try to walk, swim or drive through such swift water. STOP! Turn around and go another way.

Outdoors

  • You cannot outrun a flash flood.
  • Get to higher ground and climb to safety!
  • Watch for rapidly rising water.
  • Stay away from - and keep children from - drainage ditches and storm drains.
  • Do not walk into or near high water.
  • Do not camp along streams and washes.
  • Get out of areas subject to flooding, including dips, low spots, canyons and washes.
  • Avoid already flooded and high velocity flow areas.
  • Do not attempt to cross flowing streams where water is above your ankles.

Climb to Safety highway sign

In a vehicle

  • NEVER drive into water covering the road. You do not know how deep it is or if the road is washed out.
  • Turn around and go the other way!
  • Look out for flooding at highway dips, bridges, and low areas.
  • If the vehicle stalls, leave it immediately and seek higher ground.
  • Be especially cautious at night when it's harder to recognize flood dangers.
  • Do not park your vehicle along streams and washes, particularly during threatening conditions.

 

Turn around, Don't drown barrier

 

FLASH FLOOD or FLOOD WARNING:
Flash flooding or flooding has been reported or is imminent - take necessary precautions at once!

FLASH FLOOD or FLOOD WATCH:
Flash flooding or flooding is possible within the designated watch area - be alert.

URBAN and SMALL STREAM ADVISORY:
Flooding of small streams, streets and low-lying areas, such as railroad underpasses and urban storm drains is occurring.

FLASH FLOOD or FLOOD STATEMENT:
Follow-up information regarding a flash flood/flood event.

 

Rip Currents

rip current safety signRip currents are powerful, channeled currents of water flowing away from shore. They typically extend from the shoreline, through the surf zone, and past the line of breaking waves. Rip currents can occur at any beach with breaking waves, including the Great Lakes.

Rip currents can be killers. The United States Lifesaving Association estimates that the annual number of deaths due to rip currents on our nation's beaches exceeds 100. Rip currents account for over 80% of rescues performed by surf beach lifeguards.

The greatest safety precaution that can be taken is to recognize the danger of rip currents and always remember to swim at beaches with lifeguards.  The United States Lifesaving Association has calculated the chance that a person will drown while attending a beach protected by USLA affiliated lifeguards at 1 in 18 million. If caught in a rip current at an unguarded beach, how you respond could make the difference between life and death.

NOAA's National Weather Service and National Sea Grant Program, in partnership with the United States Lifesaving Association, are working together to raise awareness about the dangers of rip currents. Research is also being conducted in order to develop and improve the ability to predict the occurrence and strength of rip currents.  The goal of the awareness campaign and research is to reduce the number of rip current related fatalities.

A daily rip current outlook is included in the Surf Zone Forecast, which is issued by many National Weather Service offices.  A three-tiered structure of low, moderate, high is used to describe the rip current risk.  This outlook is communicated to lifeguards, emergency management, media and the general public.

With increasing coastal populations, rip currents will continue to be a serious hazard at surf beaches.  This web site is designed to provide educational material as well as real time information about the rip current risk.  The time you take to understand rip currents can help you protect yourself and your loved ones when visiting the beaches.

 


The forecasts and graphical information that appear on this page or anywhere on this website are based from public domain products and forecasts issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration unless noted otherwise.

 
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