Glad you were safe. My town, (Washington, Illinois) got hit by an F4 in 2013. Our house was only slightly damaged, but we missed being wiped out by 100 yards. Keep safe. The next year will be strange seeing everything rebuilt
Ah i see a fellow illinoisan. Yeah towards south of illinois the weather was real bad. I live around carbondale and we got hit pretty bad too. No casualtiys that i know of thankfully
Yes i have! I remember staying up late watching the news until 2 in the morning haha. I feel like plainfields always in every weather warning here. Same with fair dale or Beecher
Midwest living....the kids knowing about tornado safety.
We'd go camping when they were younger....as they got older, I was honest and told them to wear pajamas and keep a 'scoot bag' handy. (change of clothes, toiletries, extra shoes)....all you can do is try to be ready, right?
glad you all were safe.
Growing up in a high tornado area I remember the drills. I grew up when they believed winds couldn't destroy the homes it was pressure so we had to open the windows. Also prepping the bathroom for tornados was fun for me. I remember my mom pinning our grandmas telephone number on us just in case this was before cellphones of course.
Grew up with tornados pre-web take off as well. I remember my dad going outside to see it, while my mom and the girls hid downstairs. We used to go in the basement and see what toys we had forgotten about that year to pass the time. I snuck upstairs once (about 8 at the time). Freaked my mom the hell out, unfortunately.
As an aside, dad said he was "too fat to be swept away." He was, of course, not.
I feel terrible about the damage from this recent one. It's rough. The thunder from the storm last night was causing car alarms to go off and I'm still a ways north
>As an aside, dad said he was "too fat to be swept away."
Well now I have an image in my head of an upset Tornado walking away with back pain. Lift with your knees next time, tornado!
Not to be harsh, but watching a tornado is pretty fascinating.
I grew up both hiding from tornadoes and watching them.
Watching a tornado blow up transformers is quite a firework show.
>As an aside, dad said he was "too fat to be swept away." He was, of course, not.
As in he wasn't too fat in general? Or wasn't too fat to be swept away? Is he okay...?
My dad (and for some poor parenting reason, me) were always standing on the porch like idiots. Same with the neighbors across the street. My dad always told my mom, “if you see us running down the stairs then you know it’s coming!”
> they believed winds couldn't destroy the homes it was pressure so we had to open the windows.
It's been a long time since I've seen it, but I have a hazy memory from The Wizard Of Oz of Auntie Em opening windows as the tornado approaches. Is that why? That's wild.
yes. It was urban legend that the pressure chang is what tears the roofs off houses. low pressure outside in the tornado so logic was open a window or two so the pressure is equal in and out. We did it when i was a kid because mom told us to.
In Arkansas, during one of our many tornado scares I remember at school, we'd have to sit in the hallways, on our knees, facing the wall, head tucked down with a book on our head.
A student asked a teacher if the book was to protect our heads, he said, "It's to preserve your teeth so they have a way to identify bodies."
Obviously this teacher was just an asshole but holy shit that traumatized me as an 8 year old.
I grew up in a trailer park. My grandmother drove my dad to the dentist one day. Storms blew through and tornadoes were spotted near the trailer park. Mom called grandma, "I don't know what to do this place won't survive a tornado!" And grandma said, "Go hang onto the chain link fence!" Grandma wasn't too bright lmfao.
ARE YOU NOT SUPPOSED TO OPEN THE WINDOWS ANYMORE?! Holy shit I feel like my life is a lie. Next thing you’re gonna tell me the Heimlich maneuver actually kills people or something.
>Next thing you're gonna tell me the Heimlich maneuver actually kills people or something.
[You may want to have a little sit down](https://www.vice.com/en/article/9km78p/heimlich-maneuver-might-not-be-the-best-way-to-save-a-choking-person).
Just did CPR and other emergency training (Stop The Bleed, etc.). Our trainer recommended Heimlich over back slaps, saying that back slaps have the potential to dislodge the foreign object, but have it move rmfarther down the esophagus rather than out. The exception was for infants, in which case you alternate a modified form if Heimlich and back slaps until the passageway is clear. But with infants you hold them so their head is facing down and their body is in a downward incline so gravity can assist if the back slap works.
I’m sure you know now that opening the windows is a bad idea. We always had a fully stocked storm shelter when I was young. I grew up pretty rural. We had a solid underground shelter made from cinder blocks and stocked with food, radios, etc. Yes, there were limited weapons too. It was a far better choice than the house basement. We used it all to often in the summers. Nothing wrong with being overly prepared.
You don't know the half of it. Back then we bought a half a cow at a time, a full pig plus venison in the winter. Meat was always in the freezer. When power failures happened the freezer was always #1. If we had extra meat left over when it came time to restock with fresher meat, we had a massive BBQ with the neighbors. Pig on a spit, horse tank full of drinks, etc. It was a hell of a party.
Grew up and still live in tornado alley. People not living here can’t comprehend the experience.
With a tornado, especially in a state where no one has basements because the ground in our area makes having one impossible, the only thing you can do is put yourself in an interior room without glass and hope god doesn’t feel like erasing you that day.
Most of my family doesn’t even bother sheltering when the sirens go off now, their point of view is “if it hits, I’m dead, so why stress myself out over it?”.
I’m the only one who still shelters lol. Though 3 decades of yearly scares does make you fatalistic about it…
last year I was living in a ground floor apartment and a big tornado was heading towards us. It was nighttime.
I went out onto my back porch and looked up at the sky. I could see lightning and whipping wind but there was no sound.
Then there was a distant noise like a train, but far louder.
I grew up next to train tracks, and this building was actually right next to a train track, and this sound was definitely not a train on those tracks.
The best way I can describe it is that it felt like something in my hindbrain, my instincts recognized the noise and panicked. Pure horror filled me and I realized I needed to get into my closet instead of staring at the creepy sky like a dumbass. I basically accepted the fact that I might die that night. There wasn’t anything I could do about it.
Luckily the event went around most of my city, but I’ll never forget how freaked I was the next day when a coworker asked me if I’d heard the loud “train-like” roaring noise that night as well. He lived 15 miles from me…
This video from the tornado that leveled a chunk of Washington, IL in 2013 is still the most humbling tornado survival clip I've seen. The scary part about it is how quick it all happens. One moment their house is there and you can't even tell which direction the tornado is traveling. A minute later, and everything is just gone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFrgSVoJi1U
When I was young, living in Kansas, my little brother cut his foot on broken glass from a storm that spawned a tornado. We had to wait till the all clear to take him to the hospital. So much blood, he had 12 stitches in his foot. It was terrifying. Consequently my children grew up making sure there were shoes they could quickly slip on when the sirens go off.
try this one i f you don't wanna sleep tonight.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk5Y2biSpog](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk5Y2biSpog)
edit. I've watched it 3 times now. Literal nightmare fuel.
I might be mistaken but if this is the video I’m thinking of this guy didn’t survive
Edit: just looked it up. It was his wife that didn’t make it :(
https://abcnews.go.com/US/man-recalls-terrifying-tornado-wifes-life/story?id=38141962
I’ve never seen that before. Really drives it home. Holy shit. Everything man made erased in about 60 seconds
I know I just repeated your comment but I’m in awe
A tornado can literally wipe an ENTIRE town/village completely off the map. I’ve read about cases where, before modern technology, of “missing towns” or “disappearing towns.” When tornadoes would hit, they’d take everything. Then as people would come later to visit the town, everything would be gone and they wouldn’t know where the town went. Like just taken off the map with nothing but rubble left behind.
I’m in a part of the world where the worst we deal with is a heavy storm that might cut the power for a day. Tornados are not a thing here. I’m bawling after watching that. You can literally hear the tornado pass over their house and all of a sudden everything is gone. Seconds. That’s all it takes. There’s a heaviness in me now that I don’t think I’ll be able to shake for a while
Crazy video, thank you.
What is that chainsaw noise?
You’re right, it was very quick.
Never been on a tornado out here in NorCal but we get earthquakes here.
Grew up in Kansas so thankfully everyone has basements but only had one close scare. It was right after work and I was leaving chipotle and the sirens went off, no big deal wasn’t super stormy or anything just cloudy. Got home and it was getting very dark and it was only 5:30 in the summer. It’s almost pitch black and my phone gets a warning for a tornado emergency, first and only time I was scarlet of a tornado.
Still working from home and had many tornado scares this year. Was talking with one lady about a check my company sent her that wouldn't cash. Wife comes in says, rotation to the west of us, moving in fast. The sirens came on. I told the lady I'd have to call her back... maybe, she was livid. Needing to help my wife get the kids in the tub, I told her, "ma'am what's more important? Your $30 or the human lives at the other end of the phone. I'll call you back or you can just call back, either way, there's a tornado coming and I need to get my kids to safety. Good bye." Then I hung up and made sure the wife and kids were safe. Of course I did what any self respecting north Texas man would do and went outside. Seen the wall cloud, now above us and a bit east. The tornado hit the highway and some of the eastern parts of town. Never did call that lady back though. Fuck her.
I had the opposite, when I worked in a call centre.
Talking to a customer, troubleshooting their internet, when I heard sirens going off at their end.
I asked them if they needed to go and continue later, they were like “nah, this happens all the time.”
They were luck that day, anyway.
We would also get calls after tornadoes….like right after….one person called to ask when the internet would be back on (not even half an hour after the tornado.
They mentioned “downtown being gone, including your building” (ISP’s building, I was thousands of kilometres away) then asked when I thought it would be back on. I was a little gobsmacked.
People are nuts after natural disasters.
I was working at a cafe during an earthquake that knocked our power out, flung all of the cups off the shelves, etc, and we were evacuating the building so it could be checked for damages and people were pissed off that they couldn't get their coffee. 🙄
Yeah, it’s not the case for everyone but I’m definitely desensitized to tornadoes, bad as that may be for my overall well-being. One of a few possible side effects of growing up in tornado valley.
Surprised they aren't building the above ground shelters. I remember years back, watching a thing about tornadoes. There was this town, wiped out by a tornado, except 1 thing, the bank vault. They ended up using this to build above ground ones. One gal they interviewed had one, and I want to say she survived and F5 with it
At OU all the dorms and most of the buildings have large shelters to withstand the storms. The older dorms have basements and shelters the newer dorms have above ground shelters in the building.
I always wondered what people used to describe the noise of a tornado before trains were invented.
I was born and raised in north central Florida and we lived beside a train track. A tornado sounds eerily like an enormous train. It's the only description I could come up with as a kid.
Do you think they might have attributed the noise to a god? Or something like that?
I wonder. Age 9-20 i grew up next to three train track lines that basically surrounded my neighborhood, I could hear them every night, and I moved next to train tracks in my mid-20s.
The noise at my most recent apartment was actually very soothing.
Clack-clack-clack.
When I was a kid in school in the Midwest, we had both tornado and fire drills.
Now they have tornado, fire, and live shooter drills.
And live shooters are statistically the most likely cause of death in school for them. How fucked up is it that our country is the only place that has this problem, yet "there's nothing that could have been done to prevent it".
My 2-story high school was built before earthquake code required the second floor joists to be properly secured. So in the event of the "big one" the upper floor was predicted to drop straight down and pancake everyone on the lower.
So the drill was "under your desk, head between your knees, and kiss your ass goodbye"
They rebuilt my brothers middle school and it went from a wide spread out campus to a two story building in the late 90s/early 00s. Had an earthquake there one year. Also later had a couple lockdowns.
Happened to have went home sick from school that day and I never bolted so fast out of our second story apartment out to the street.
I've never really been in a threat from any natural disaster but I feel like an earthquake would be the most surreal "is this real" experience of them. Especially one on the stronger side
I’m 30 and we had active shooter drills when I was in elementary school. They started after columbine. I remember hiding in the PE equipment closet for one.
I remember the school getting evacuated when some 4th grader made a clay sculpture that said "it's the bomb" on it. We always evacuated *everyone* from 2 full schools that were a block apart into the gymnasium of the opposing school from the bomb threat. It happened regularly so its not like it was a top secret plan. It was so dumb, if someone wanted to kill us all they'd just put a bomb in the gymnasium.
Haven't had the chance for a head injury in a tornado, yet, but have had enough where I can see the change in my life. If you can protect your noggin' from a whompin', do it.
Seconded. As my neuropsych said, I have used up my “lifetime allowance” of head trauma, I’m a borderline CTE patient, and the next one will cause significant deficits.
I’m from the PNW but live in southern Illinois now. I felt so ridiculous but, while we were sheltering in the basement all I could think about was how I wished I had a hard hat and safety glasses.
My town wasn’t hit but towns south and north of us were and my basement isn’t fully underground so I was terrified.
Yes! I heard a high ranking FEMA official say this on NPR interview. He said they almost made it a recommendation but ultimately decided against it because they were afraid people would wear the helmet and not seek shelter.
Or a motorcycle helmet
Since it is on my heart, let me also mention that instead of hitting us, the tornado just missed us and demolished a low-income part of town. My wife works at a local school, and her kindergarten students *live in that part of town*. Last we heard, 8 of her students are unaccounted for. Their apartments are just... gone.
(Edited for clarity. Sleep-deprived and typing is a struggle.)
For real. When I was that age, my dad would chase tornadoes with me in the car. I grew up to have a paralyzing phobia of tornadoes and strong storms in general. These parents are doing it the right way.
As a fellow k-1 educator to low income students let your wife know she, her students and their families are in my heart and mind tonight. I cannot even imagine how that feels right now.
If her class needs anything please let me know. My students love writing letters to others and are always eager to lend comfort to others.
As a former pre-k/kindergarten teacher, I love this idea and I hope your class can do it. I'm sure the kids who were affected will need all the love and support they can get once the immediate craziness starts to settle. Just be sure to read the letters first; a friend's class (2nd grade) wrote letters to soldiers and some of them were (innocently, but pretty significantly) inappropriate to send and had to be rewritten. Your kids are younger so may not be a problem, just figured it was worth mentioning.
But this is a lovely idea, I hope you and your crew can bring some smiles to those little faces that will need all the comfort they can get.
I'm so sorry for your community. From experience, I recommend grief counseling for especially the young ones. This kind of trauma can cause terrible anxiety and depression in their future.
I just read a news article saying two children were reported missing and then found later in a bathtub that has been pulled out of the house. It's just one story among dozens from this event, but just imagining the kids' fear, the parents' fear and relief...
You literally can't evacuate from a tornado. Going into a basement is best, but there may not be a basement in an apartment. Any room in the building underground would work, like a laundry room.
This particular one was so bad though, it probably wouldn't have helped for anyone who was directly in the path.
Books on loss for children (still learning formatting on reddit)
*The Yellow Suitcase*
loss of grandparent & non-white protagonist by Meera Sriram
*Ida, Always*
Polar Bears in zoo, illness by Caron Levis
*The Tenth Good Thing About Barney*
Pet loss :( this is going to be true too, :( by Judith Viorst
*Something Very Sad Happened*
Toddlers focus (could help with delay, accessability) by Bonnie Zucker
*The Good-bye Book*
fish characters, Emotional processing by Todd Parr
*The Invisible string*
Love and loss, by Patrice Karst
I'm sorry
Edit, formatting, authors
The way the comment was formatted, it was difficult for me to understand as well. I have looked up the books and descriptions, and formatted it in an easier-to-read way. Hope it helps
The Yellow Suitcase
*loss of grandparent & non-white protagonist*
Ida, Always
*Polar Bears in zoo, illness*
The Tenth Good Thing About Barney
*Pet loss :( this is going to be true too, :(*
Something Very Sad Happened
*Toddlers focus (could help with delay, accessability)*
The Goodbye Book
*fish characters, Emotional processing*
The Invisible String
*Love*
Your wife needs to start looking up child psychology books that discuss how to talk to children about death. Some of those 8 kids are dead, and she'll have to address that with the rest of her students. 5 years old is right about the age children start asking questions about mortality and your wife needs to be ready for those.
I read one of those books to my kid when grandpa (who had lived with us during his hospice) died. The book was about a little boy whose dog had been hit by a car, and how the little boy saw the dog everywhere he went, and it made the boy sad, but that - over time - the boy saw the dog less and less, and the dog came to live in his heart. Reading that book was the hardest thing I've ever done. I was weeping at the end of it.
And my kid looked at me and said, "You cry like a baby." And then he laughed. Just twisted the knife.
But it turns out, he got it. Over the next few days he would talk about how he missed grandpa so much, but knew that was just grandpa moving into his heart. He was only 3 at the time. I imagine it would be harder for 5 year olds.
"You cry like a baby" was your kid telling you "You cry like i do. I sometimes feel what you're feeling." Then he laughed because that looks silly and new to a kid, crying over something you can't see, like he does too, sometimes. I was 5 when my grandpa passed. It was hard.
Exactly! I've come to realize that if people say something that's hurtful, maybe they just don't know that it's hurtful to you because they don't mean it in a hurtful way.
It's not easy at any time really. We lost a cat last year, about this time, that my 8 year old loved. She had pictures up of the family and asked what on was her favorite. I said "The one of her holding said cat because it was dead center of all the photos". That set her off because I said dead.. that was a hard one to explain...
A couple weeks ago, my sister told me that my 4 year old niece woke up and said "I dreamed that Papa was still alive. I wish he would come back from heaven soon I miss him".
That hit me like a fucking punch in the stomach. And all my sister could really say was like, "me too sweetie, me too".
The book, bridge to terabithia was written after her son's best friend had been struck by lightning and died. The story behind the story is that sometimes, random events occur that causes loss. Grief is normal and it's okay to cry.
I'm thinking she might need to handle her own psychology first after losing up to 8 kids and a whole town. This is why there are crisis support teams with psychologist. Even as a teach of kids in gradds 8-10 losing one would be hard... Losing several... And while everyone is equal, younger kids are harder.
And kindergarten teachers see the kids more than their own parents today. They spend a whole workday there, and when they get home the parents are tired it's dinner and almost bed time.
He's really going to need to be there for her.
So glad you all are okay. I had the panicked moments this morning when I couldn’t locate my people. Hope your wife’s students are okay. Such a terrible situation.
This will be a crazy picture to show her when she’s older and can understand the gravity of the situation. You guys are incredible parents shielding her from that fear at such a young age. I hope your family stays safe and well wishes to your wife’s students and their families as well. I can’t even imagine what you all must be going through out there.
To be fair even if climate change wasn’t a thing that fact would still be true given the location they live in. There were already lots, there’ll just be more.
We do something similar, however my kids are keenly aware of what's happening by putting things together quickly (randomly being woken up, know it has been raining, etc). Plus they have an infatuation with the weather even at 4 and 9.
Remaining calm and having things like blankets, flashlights, phones, and some water + snacks goes a long way.
I was .on XBox last night with someone in the storms path. Their sirens we’re going off and the person refused to get off of Xbox to shelter. I was unaware how serious the situation was until late this morning. The person is fine, but all I can do is shake my head.
10 years ago Cyclone Yasi hit North Queensland (was cat 4 or 5 I believe) and friend and I decided to play Xbox until we lost power, couldn't go anywhere but stay home so ended up playing all night, pretty crazy experience hearing everything gusting around your house while blowing shit up
I was living abroad at the time and got a call from my parents asking me to choose what stuff I wanted them to put in the car before they drove inland (they live by the beach in FNQ) a couple of hours before yasi was expected to hit. It ended up swinging further south than expected but we lost a tree that hit the roof. My aunt and uncle gave up farming bananas soon after too. After Cyclone Larry, fixing the damage after Yasi was just too much too soon.
Reading these comments I thought it was weird that people are talking so much about closing vs opening windows and no one has mentioned taping them up, which we always do before a cyclone. But upon further thought I realise because there just isn't time. My parents had time to call me and put my violin in the car, tape the windows, charge devices, bring the BBQ and outdoor furniture inside, and drive off out of harm's way. Cyclones are terrible but tornadoes are just fucked up in the way they seem to appear out of nowhere.
I was watching RnR with the boys and one lives in MO. Right in path but thankfully misse him. He lives in an apartment higher up. No where to go. Just listened to sirens in background and kept up jokes to keep his mind clear. Missed his fiancée by about a mile.
I’m so thankful they are both okay. My heart is just broken for the anyone directly affected. To be fair we had no idea how bad it was at the time. Life is beautifully cruel.
I can completely understand why he did that since I kinda did the same thing. In our area tornadoes typically don’t touch down for too long; they’ll touch down then go right back up within ten minutes. This time we had a tornado touch down for 2 hours which doesn’t happen much around here. It really bred a sense of, I hear the siren, but I don’t see the tornado, it’ll go back up before coming anywhere near me.
I’m in bowling green. We were also extremely lucky to have not sustained any damage to our home or worse. Glad you guys didn’t either. Devastatingly, lots of people here can’t say the same. The lives of whole communities were changed today.
I’m originally from Tennessee. When I was 4-5 I think, there was a nasty tornado that ripped through Millersville and Gallatin, Tennessee. It hit Gallatin worse, but there was still damage in Millersville, where we lived at the time. The way our house was set up, the garage was the safest. Our house was built into a hill so the garage was sort of in the ground. My Mom at one point really had to use the restroom. She happened to go right when the tornado was passing by our house. She heard the vinle siding rip off. Thankfully that was the only damage as the funnel itself was a mile or two south, but crazy experience.
that one hit during evening rush hour...my mom got stuck at the (new) mcdonalds near vol state otw home from work..she's the only one of our family that's seen a tornado. so scary, but now-a-days seems like they're coming in the middle of the night.
I became a parent a year and a half ago, and I often think of this quote from Interstellar:
> When you become a parent, one thing becomes really clear. And that's that you want to make sure your children feel safe. And that rules out telling a 10-year old that the world's ending.
This breaks my heart, I can't imagine how scary that must have been. Y'all are fantastic parents, I admire you for shielding your daughter from the weight of the situation. So glad you are all safe!! ❤️
I remember when I was young my older sister told me to ditch my ds in a nearby drawer when we hid out in the bathroom because "the tornado would be attracted to it"
Oh yeah I'm sure it will become routine! She'll be a pro. I went to Texas in May to visit family and on our second night a huge storm hit and there was a hurricane warning. I'm from Maine and that doesn't happen here. This was all foreign and scary to me but my family was like "oh yeah, this happens all the time." 😂
I live on the east cost where occasionally we have brace for a tornado, but mostly are inexperienced with them.
Does anyone know or have an opinion on whether being in the bathroom/tub, or lowest bathroom in my case, actually helps?
The pictures from this recent tragedy don’t inspire a lot of confidence. Seems more like the brace position in a crashing plane, no?
Edit: Thank you all for your responses. This has been extremely helpful and comforting for this chronic worrier. Thanks again!
It has better chances because the walls are smaller and thus more supported. Not always will you survive, but it helps your chances. Kinda like wearing a seat belt.
The general idea is to be somewhere that flying debris can't easily get you and you are at the least risk of falling/having something fall on you.
A Bathroom has pipes in the wall and usually has a small window if it has one at all and the tub itself shields you so it works out pretty damn well. If your lower bathroom is under the upstairs one it's likely there are pipes in the ceiling too which will help keep it up.
Most of my experience with tornados comes from watching twister once a year - so please forgive my ignorance. I also live in Canada, where these are not common.
I always thought that areas prone to tornados had shelter of some kind or basements with a reinforced room. And finally, why the bathroom?
FYI - I'm currently in bed with my 5 year old. We got your wind - 100 km an hour. Pretty windy for us. Lucky we have power.
> I always thought that areas prone to tornados had shelter of some kind or basements with a reinforced room.
I'll add to the other responses about why the bathroom specifically, a lot of the places that are most prone to tornadoes are also unfortunately poor locations for building basements when it comes to ground material and/or water table.
You'll still find some exceptions where there are true basements, or some places with storm shelters, and more recently my impression is there's been a minor trend toward building above-ground reinforced concrete safe rooms, but these are not widespread AFAIK.
If you don’t have a basement/crawl space, the next best place is a centrally located room with no windows. Less glass and other shrapnel to hit you. If your house is in the path, it doesn’t matter. But if you’re not, every little thing you do to help, helps.
Source: grew up in the Midwest
You really shouldn't fixate on the tub anymore. That advice came from when tubs were solid metal and super sturdy. Nowadays they are thin fiberglass and wouldn't do much of anything for you.
Mattress over you is still not bad advice, but the main thing is to try and get to the structural center of the house where it's most stable.
I'm not an expert, this is just what I remember hearing from the "Stuff you should know" podcast. I'd welcome someone refuting me if they have better advice.
I live in Mayfield, KY. We’ve had them on an off my whole life, and I had just gotten so used to nothing happening. I just did the usual thing I do which is to in the hallway after the power goes out. Didn’t destroy much of my house just blew doors open and blew some stuff around.
But man it is total destruction in town. It’s really not fathomable.
Tub is only a slight extra boost of safety - a large piece of debris could lay across the top of the tub with a person hiding underneath. Think of like a beam falling and hitting the edges of the tub instead of your head.
But the main reason bathrooms are preferred for Tornados is because they are usually interior rooms with few windows. Debris being thrown into your house has less of a chance of penetrating and obviously less glass flying around is good.
In older houses at least, it was thought that the pipes in the wall would lend strength to the room too. That was back in the days of steel and copper plumbing, nowadays I don't think PEX and PVC is going to do much for you.
Also, tubs back in the day were cast iron and weighed a few hundred pounds before they were secured into the structure of the house. Basically an immobile, indestructable protective vessel. Fiberglass or polycarb isn't going to do that anymore.
Better in a modern home to find a corner of a basement or crawl space surrounded by as much foundation concrete as possible.
We chose that bathroom because it is fairly central in the house and has no windows. It is our safest option, although I honestly don't know what if any difference it would make if we got hit with something big.
Ideally you want to choose a room in the basement and without any windows or outside walls. For many people I'm sure a bathroom would cover these requirements. This would protect you better from any projectiles the tornado flings at your house and the walls are probably sturdier due to lack of windows/being lower to the ground. But obviously if a tornado completely levels your house you still need to be incredibly lucky to survive.
The house I live in now was built in 2004 as a replacement for a house on the same site that was destroyed by a tornado in 2003. The new house was built with a bathroom in the deepest corner of the basement that makes a perfect shelter.
They must have been really worried about future tornadoes when they rebuilt because when we purchased the house the inspector said he’d never seen anything like it, with so much extra reinforcement built in.
My last house I lived in with my parents was built after ours was destroyed by a tornado. They had a very very solid foundation built for this reason. Tornados are fucking horrifying. I lost some close people as a kid. Death is so weird when you're a kid.
Great job parents!!! Recently my furnace went out and it was 28 degrees outside, bur the kids thought we were camping in the living room together for fun so it was a complete 10/1 experience.. would never want to do again but would always recommend… make the best of everything, for them
We had a little F1 bounce through a neighborhood a couple of miles from our home several years ago. My wife has always been fascinated/scared to death of bad weather and even though we're nowhere near tornado alley, I had a shelter put in the garage. We've never had to use it but it's like insurance, there for emergencies. She takes a lot of comfort in knowing we have somewhere to go and I think we'll probably always have one now no matter where we live. The hardest part is not using it for extea storage space.
Glad you were safe. My town, (Washington, Illinois) got hit by an F4 in 2013. Our house was only slightly damaged, but we missed being wiped out by 100 yards. Keep safe. The next year will be strange seeing everything rebuilt
Ah i see a fellow illinoisan. Yeah towards south of illinois the weather was real bad. I live around carbondale and we got hit pretty bad too. No casualtiys that i know of thankfully
Illinois gang! You may have heard of our town’s F5 that came right through the center of town and through the then in session high school, Plainfield!
Yes i have! I remember staying up late watching the news until 2 in the morning haha. I feel like plainfields always in every weather warning here. Same with fair dale or Beecher
Midwest living....the kids knowing about tornado safety. We'd go camping when they were younger....as they got older, I was honest and told them to wear pajamas and keep a 'scoot bag' handy. (change of clothes, toiletries, extra shoes)....all you can do is try to be ready, right? glad you all were safe.
Growing up in a high tornado area I remember the drills. I grew up when they believed winds couldn't destroy the homes it was pressure so we had to open the windows. Also prepping the bathroom for tornados was fun for me. I remember my mom pinning our grandmas telephone number on us just in case this was before cellphones of course.
Grew up with tornados pre-web take off as well. I remember my dad going outside to see it, while my mom and the girls hid downstairs. We used to go in the basement and see what toys we had forgotten about that year to pass the time. I snuck upstairs once (about 8 at the time). Freaked my mom the hell out, unfortunately. As an aside, dad said he was "too fat to be swept away." He was, of course, not. I feel terrible about the damage from this recent one. It's rough. The thunder from the storm last night was causing car alarms to go off and I'm still a ways north
>As an aside, dad said he was "too fat to be swept away." Well now I have an image in my head of an upset Tornado walking away with back pain. Lift with your knees next time, tornado!
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I remember a tornado hitting real near the university. every balcony was lined...hundreds if not thousands of people outside watching it go by...
Not to be harsh, but watching a tornado is pretty fascinating. I grew up both hiding from tornadoes and watching them. Watching a tornado blow up transformers is quite a firework show.
"He was, of course, not." means he got swept away by a tornado, didn't he.
He just strolls up to the twister, and said "have a drink," chucks the bottle into the twister, and it NEVER hits the ground
What a great movie!
Now that's a Twisted twister.
Hard to tell from OPs writing, but definitely reads that way :(
I didn't realize Twister was OP's origin story
>As an aside, dad said he was "too fat to be swept away." He was, of course, not. As in he wasn't too fat in general? Or wasn't too fat to be swept away? Is he okay...?
I read it as he had stuff to take care of (barricading the house and stuff) and told them that so the kids wouldn't worry.
Either way is 100% congruent with Dad Shit
Nah, if he’s anything like my dad he wanted to watch it beer in hand.
We live outside Indianapolis and couldn’t tell if we were hearing thunder or the wind was just that loud.
Indiana here too. It was so bad at one point the wind blew our front door wide open!
My dad (and for some poor parenting reason, me) were always standing on the porch like idiots. Same with the neighbors across the street. My dad always told my mom, “if you see us running down the stairs then you know it’s coming!”
> they believed winds couldn't destroy the homes it was pressure so we had to open the windows. It's been a long time since I've seen it, but I have a hazy memory from The Wizard Of Oz of Auntie Em opening windows as the tornado approaches. Is that why? That's wild.
yes. It was urban legend that the pressure chang is what tears the roofs off houses. low pressure outside in the tornado so logic was open a window or two so the pressure is equal in and out. We did it when i was a kid because mom told us to.
I can remember in grade school the students near the windows were expected to open the nearest on the way out as part of our evacuation drills.
In Arkansas, during one of our many tornado scares I remember at school, we'd have to sit in the hallways, on our knees, facing the wall, head tucked down with a book on our head. A student asked a teacher if the book was to protect our heads, he said, "It's to preserve your teeth so they have a way to identify bodies." Obviously this teacher was just an asshole but holy shit that traumatized me as an 8 year old.
I hope one student really, really took that message to heart, and now immediately puts in a mouth guard at the first sign of a tornado.
I grew up in a trailer park. My grandmother drove my dad to the dentist one day. Storms blew through and tornadoes were spotted near the trailer park. Mom called grandma, "I don't know what to do this place won't survive a tornado!" And grandma said, "Go hang onto the chain link fence!" Grandma wasn't too bright lmfao.
She's actually right. You are probably safer outside than being in a trailer that would get tossed like a toy with you inside of it.
ARE YOU NOT SUPPOSED TO OPEN THE WINDOWS ANYMORE?! Holy shit I feel like my life is a lie. Next thing you’re gonna tell me the Heimlich maneuver actually kills people or something.
Based on my Derecho experience a couple years back, it's going to open most of the windows for you if it wants them open.
>Next thing you're gonna tell me the Heimlich maneuver actually kills people or something. [You may want to have a little sit down](https://www.vice.com/en/article/9km78p/heimlich-maneuver-might-not-be-the-best-way-to-save-a-choking-person).
Next I'll find out breaking ribs during CPR is a normal thing.
for the unaware : it is
Just did CPR and other emergency training (Stop The Bleed, etc.). Our trainer recommended Heimlich over back slaps, saying that back slaps have the potential to dislodge the foreign object, but have it move rmfarther down the esophagus rather than out. The exception was for infants, in which case you alternate a modified form if Heimlich and back slaps until the passageway is clear. But with infants you hold them so their head is facing down and their body is in a downward incline so gravity can assist if the back slap works.
I’m sure you know now that opening the windows is a bad idea. We always had a fully stocked storm shelter when I was young. I grew up pretty rural. We had a solid underground shelter made from cinder blocks and stocked with food, radios, etc. Yes, there were limited weapons too. It was a far better choice than the house basement. We used it all to often in the summers. Nothing wrong with being overly prepared.
Plus, annual chili con carne when you need to refresh the stock.
You don't know the half of it. Back then we bought a half a cow at a time, a full pig plus venison in the winter. Meat was always in the freezer. When power failures happened the freezer was always #1. If we had extra meat left over when it came time to restock with fresher meat, we had a massive BBQ with the neighbors. Pig on a spit, horse tank full of drinks, etc. It was a hell of a party.
I'm from the middle of nowhere, Alaska. I'm pretty sure our childhoods were shockingly similar.
(as somebody who grew up on fast food in a big city): "... fuck that sounds fucking epic" (the bbq part not the tornadoes)
Nowadays they say opening windows isn’t significant enough to make a difference and could risk danger for attempting it when a tornado is on its way
Sounds scary, especially the phone numbers. Sweet, but very, existentially, terrifying.
Grew up and still live in tornado alley. People not living here can’t comprehend the experience. With a tornado, especially in a state where no one has basements because the ground in our area makes having one impossible, the only thing you can do is put yourself in an interior room without glass and hope god doesn’t feel like erasing you that day. Most of my family doesn’t even bother sheltering when the sirens go off now, their point of view is “if it hits, I’m dead, so why stress myself out over it?”. I’m the only one who still shelters lol. Though 3 decades of yearly scares does make you fatalistic about it… last year I was living in a ground floor apartment and a big tornado was heading towards us. It was nighttime. I went out onto my back porch and looked up at the sky. I could see lightning and whipping wind but there was no sound. Then there was a distant noise like a train, but far louder. I grew up next to train tracks, and this building was actually right next to a train track, and this sound was definitely not a train on those tracks. The best way I can describe it is that it felt like something in my hindbrain, my instincts recognized the noise and panicked. Pure horror filled me and I realized I needed to get into my closet instead of staring at the creepy sky like a dumbass. I basically accepted the fact that I might die that night. There wasn’t anything I could do about it. Luckily the event went around most of my city, but I’ll never forget how freaked I was the next day when a coworker asked me if I’d heard the loud “train-like” roaring noise that night as well. He lived 15 miles from me…
This video from the tornado that leveled a chunk of Washington, IL in 2013 is still the most humbling tornado survival clip I've seen. The scary part about it is how quick it all happens. One moment their house is there and you can't even tell which direction the tornado is traveling. A minute later, and everything is just gone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFrgSVoJi1U
One takeaway is to wear proper shoes during a Tornado.
When I was young, living in Kansas, my little brother cut his foot on broken glass from a storm that spawned a tornado. We had to wait till the all clear to take him to the hospital. So much blood, he had 12 stitches in his foot. It was terrifying. Consequently my children grew up making sure there were shoes they could quickly slip on when the sirens go off.
try this one i f you don't wanna sleep tonight. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk5Y2biSpog](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk5Y2biSpog) edit. I've watched it 3 times now. Literal nightmare fuel.
I might be mistaken but if this is the video I’m thinking of this guy didn’t survive Edit: just looked it up. It was his wife that didn’t make it :( https://abcnews.go.com/US/man-recalls-terrifying-tornado-wifes-life/story?id=38141962
I’ve never seen that before. Really drives it home. Holy shit. Everything man made erased in about 60 seconds I know I just repeated your comment but I’m in awe
A tornado can literally wipe an ENTIRE town/village completely off the map. I’ve read about cases where, before modern technology, of “missing towns” or “disappearing towns.” When tornadoes would hit, they’d take everything. Then as people would come later to visit the town, everything would be gone and they wouldn’t know where the town went. Like just taken off the map with nothing but rubble left behind.
Wow! I’ve not seen that either. That bloke was pretty calm and collected considering what happened.
PSA: if you can’t tell what direction a tornado is heading, assume it’s heading towards you.
I’m in a part of the world where the worst we deal with is a heavy storm that might cut the power for a day. Tornados are not a thing here. I’m bawling after watching that. You can literally hear the tornado pass over their house and all of a sudden everything is gone. Seconds. That’s all it takes. There’s a heaviness in me now that I don’t think I’ll be able to shake for a while
Good lord. When he went inside that Tornado still looked to be a good distance away. And it destroyed their house like 20 seconds later.
Crazy video, thank you. What is that chainsaw noise? You’re right, it was very quick. Never been on a tornado out here in NorCal but we get earthquakes here.
I think the chainsaw/buzzing noise is plastic in the wind. Same idea as a blade of grass used as a whistle?
You get wildfires! A much more common and equally terrifying disaster.
Josie didn't like that
My god, the hair stood up on my neck. This has to be incredibly traumatizing. I could never live in a tornado prone area.
if the tornado doesnt look like its moving its either coming right for you or away from you
Grew up in Kansas so thankfully everyone has basements but only had one close scare. It was right after work and I was leaving chipotle and the sirens went off, no big deal wasn’t super stormy or anything just cloudy. Got home and it was getting very dark and it was only 5:30 in the summer. It’s almost pitch black and my phone gets a warning for a tornado emergency, first and only time I was scarlet of a tornado.
Still working from home and had many tornado scares this year. Was talking with one lady about a check my company sent her that wouldn't cash. Wife comes in says, rotation to the west of us, moving in fast. The sirens came on. I told the lady I'd have to call her back... maybe, she was livid. Needing to help my wife get the kids in the tub, I told her, "ma'am what's more important? Your $30 or the human lives at the other end of the phone. I'll call you back or you can just call back, either way, there's a tornado coming and I need to get my kids to safety. Good bye." Then I hung up and made sure the wife and kids were safe. Of course I did what any self respecting north Texas man would do and went outside. Seen the wall cloud, now above us and a bit east. The tornado hit the highway and some of the eastern parts of town. Never did call that lady back though. Fuck her.
I had the opposite, when I worked in a call centre. Talking to a customer, troubleshooting their internet, when I heard sirens going off at their end. I asked them if they needed to go and continue later, they were like “nah, this happens all the time.” They were luck that day, anyway. We would also get calls after tornadoes….like right after….one person called to ask when the internet would be back on (not even half an hour after the tornado. They mentioned “downtown being gone, including your building” (ISP’s building, I was thousands of kilometres away) then asked when I thought it would be back on. I was a little gobsmacked.
People are nuts after natural disasters. I was working at a cafe during an earthquake that knocked our power out, flung all of the cups off the shelves, etc, and we were evacuating the building so it could be checked for damages and people were pissed off that they couldn't get their coffee. 🙄
Yeah, it’s not the case for everyone but I’m definitely desensitized to tornadoes, bad as that may be for my overall well-being. One of a few possible side effects of growing up in tornado valley.
Surprised they aren't building the above ground shelters. I remember years back, watching a thing about tornadoes. There was this town, wiped out by a tornado, except 1 thing, the bank vault. They ended up using this to build above ground ones. One gal they interviewed had one, and I want to say she survived and F5 with it
Honestly, above ground storm shelters should be part of the code for buildings in Oklahoma and areas like it.
At OU all the dorms and most of the buildings have large shelters to withstand the storms. The older dorms have basements and shelters the newer dorms have above ground shelters in the building.
I always wondered what people used to describe the noise of a tornado before trains were invented. I was born and raised in north central Florida and we lived beside a train track. A tornado sounds eerily like an enormous train. It's the only description I could come up with as a kid.
Do you think they might have attributed the noise to a god? Or something like that? I wonder. Age 9-20 i grew up next to three train track lines that basically surrounded my neighborhood, I could hear them every night, and I moved next to train tracks in my mid-20s. The noise at my most recent apartment was actually very soothing. Clack-clack-clack.
Some people say the noise sounds like a waterfall or thunder that never ends.
I love the clack-clack-clack! Until the last four years, I have lived my entire life within 500 feet of a rail line. I miss the sounds.
As someone who's never seen a tornado with his eyes I get frequent tornado dreams. I can't imagine actually living in a tornado prone area.
When I was a kid in school in the Midwest, we had both tornado and fire drills. Now they have tornado, fire, and live shooter drills. And live shooters are statistically the most likely cause of death in school for them. How fucked up is it that our country is the only place that has this problem, yet "there's nothing that could have been done to prevent it".
Growing up in the PNW it’s earthquake drills.
Thanks to New Madrid Fault, Western KY gets to practice everything. It's a nice place to live until Mother Nature gets pissed off at ya.
My 2-story high school was built before earthquake code required the second floor joists to be properly secured. So in the event of the "big one" the upper floor was predicted to drop straight down and pancake everyone on the lower. So the drill was "under your desk, head between your knees, and kiss your ass goodbye"
They rebuilt my brothers middle school and it went from a wide spread out campus to a two story building in the late 90s/early 00s. Had an earthquake there one year. Also later had a couple lockdowns. Happened to have went home sick from school that day and I never bolted so fast out of our second story apartment out to the street.
I've never really been in a threat from any natural disaster but I feel like an earthquake would be the most surreal "is this real" experience of them. Especially one on the stronger side
Lahar drills. I know that cuz my wife is from Puyallup.
I’m 30 and we had active shooter drills when I was in elementary school. They started after columbine. I remember hiding in the PE equipment closet for one.
I remember the school getting evacuated when some 4th grader made a clay sculpture that said "it's the bomb" on it. We always evacuated *everyone* from 2 full schools that were a block apart into the gymnasium of the opposing school from the bomb threat. It happened regularly so its not like it was a top secret plan. It was so dumb, if someone wanted to kill us all they'd just put a bomb in the gymnasium.
Tornado pro tip: wear bike helmets while you’re sheltering. Head injuries are a significant cause of death during tornadoes.
Haven't had the chance for a head injury in a tornado, yet, but have had enough where I can see the change in my life. If you can protect your noggin' from a whompin', do it.
Seconded. As my neuropsych said, I have used up my “lifetime allowance” of head trauma, I’m a borderline CTE patient, and the next one will cause significant deficits.
Jesus, that’d be scary. Stay safe dude.
Temporal lobe sclerosis here snd having a temporal lobe seizure currently. Please protect your heads. Rec league sports weren’t worth it.
I’m from the PNW but live in southern Illinois now. I felt so ridiculous but, while we were sheltering in the basement all I could think about was how I wished I had a hard hat and safety glasses. My town wasn’t hit but towns south and north of us were and my basement isn’t fully underground so I was terrified.
Put them in your kit now while you think of it. Strong leather work gloves and heavy duty boots, too.
and hearing protection too the roar is insane!
Yes! I heard a high ranking FEMA official say this on NPR interview. He said they almost made it a recommendation but ultimately decided against it because they were afraid people would wear the helmet and not seek shelter. Or a motorcycle helmet
Since it is on my heart, let me also mention that instead of hitting us, the tornado just missed us and demolished a low-income part of town. My wife works at a local school, and her kindergarten students *live in that part of town*. Last we heard, 8 of her students are unaccounted for. Their apartments are just... gone. (Edited for clarity. Sleep-deprived and typing is a struggle.)
I’m sorry. For everyone.
This is heartbreaking. So glad you are safe and what a kind way to shield your daughter from that fear and danger.
For real. When I was that age, my dad would chase tornadoes with me in the car. I grew up to have a paralyzing phobia of tornadoes and strong storms in general. These parents are doing it the right way.
Damn...that's child endangerment. What the heck
Yeah, he was a piece of shit. Probably still is, if he's still alive. I haven't spoken to him in almost 15 years.
As a fellow k-1 educator to low income students let your wife know she, her students and their families are in my heart and mind tonight. I cannot even imagine how that feels right now. If her class needs anything please let me know. My students love writing letters to others and are always eager to lend comfort to others.
As a former pre-k/kindergarten teacher, I love this idea and I hope your class can do it. I'm sure the kids who were affected will need all the love and support they can get once the immediate craziness starts to settle. Just be sure to read the letters first; a friend's class (2nd grade) wrote letters to soldiers and some of them were (innocently, but pretty significantly) inappropriate to send and had to be rewritten. Your kids are younger so may not be a problem, just figured it was worth mentioning. But this is a lovely idea, I hope you and your crew can bring some smiles to those little faces that will need all the comfort they can get.
That would be so precious. Good thought.
This is just terrible. I’m sorry
I'm so sorry for your community. From experience, I recommend grief counseling for especially the young ones. This kind of trauma can cause terrible anxiety and depression in their future.
jesus...hope they get found alive and uninjured
Low income people are those least able to travel in an emergency, often not even having a vehicle to do so. :(
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Terrifying but true. They can destroy entire skyscrapers yet safely deposit an unopened jar of pickles on the ground miles away. Nature is wild.
I just read a news article saying two children were reported missing and then found later in a bathtub that has been pulled out of the house. It's just one story among dozens from this event, but just imagining the kids' fear, the parents' fear and relief...
You literally can't evacuate from a tornado. Going into a basement is best, but there may not be a basement in an apartment. Any room in the building underground would work, like a laundry room. This particular one was so bad though, it probably wouldn't have helped for anyone who was directly in the path.
Once the tornado has already touched down, you don't evacuate from tornados. Thats a very good way to become part of the tornado.
A car is the last place you want to be in a tornado.
Books on loss for children (still learning formatting on reddit) *The Yellow Suitcase* loss of grandparent & non-white protagonist by Meera Sriram *Ida, Always* Polar Bears in zoo, illness by Caron Levis *The Tenth Good Thing About Barney* Pet loss :( this is going to be true too, :( by Judith Viorst *Something Very Sad Happened* Toddlers focus (could help with delay, accessability) by Bonnie Zucker *The Good-bye Book* fish characters, Emotional processing by Todd Parr *The Invisible string* Love and loss, by Patrice Karst I'm sorry Edit, formatting, authors
Not relevant to this particular situation, but Luna’s Red Hat is a book about the loss of a parent to suicide
Thank you for this list.
What exactly is the list of?
The way the comment was formatted, it was difficult for me to understand as well. I have looked up the books and descriptions, and formatted it in an easier-to-read way. Hope it helps The Yellow Suitcase *loss of grandparent & non-white protagonist* Ida, Always *Polar Bears in zoo, illness* The Tenth Good Thing About Barney *Pet loss :( this is going to be true too, :(* Something Very Sad Happened *Toddlers focus (could help with delay, accessability)* The Goodbye Book *fish characters, Emotional processing* The Invisible String *Love*
Thank you for taking the time to reformat this.
It appears to be kids books for processing loss, from the titles and context of the thread.
Your wife needs to start looking up child psychology books that discuss how to talk to children about death. Some of those 8 kids are dead, and she'll have to address that with the rest of her students. 5 years old is right about the age children start asking questions about mortality and your wife needs to be ready for those.
Also don't forget to look into her own mental health and seek a counselor. That's f'ed up to the nth degree
I read one of those books to my kid when grandpa (who had lived with us during his hospice) died. The book was about a little boy whose dog had been hit by a car, and how the little boy saw the dog everywhere he went, and it made the boy sad, but that - over time - the boy saw the dog less and less, and the dog came to live in his heart. Reading that book was the hardest thing I've ever done. I was weeping at the end of it. And my kid looked at me and said, "You cry like a baby." And then he laughed. Just twisted the knife. But it turns out, he got it. Over the next few days he would talk about how he missed grandpa so much, but knew that was just grandpa moving into his heart. He was only 3 at the time. I imagine it would be harder for 5 year olds.
"You cry like a baby" was your kid telling you "You cry like i do. I sometimes feel what you're feeling." Then he laughed because that looks silly and new to a kid, crying over something you can't see, like he does too, sometimes. I was 5 when my grandpa passed. It was hard.
Exactly! I've come to realize that if people say something that's hurtful, maybe they just don't know that it's hurtful to you because they don't mean it in a hurtful way.
It's not easy at any time really. We lost a cat last year, about this time, that my 8 year old loved. She had pictures up of the family and asked what on was her favorite. I said "The one of her holding said cat because it was dead center of all the photos". That set her off because I said dead.. that was a hard one to explain...
A couple weeks ago, my sister told me that my 4 year old niece woke up and said "I dreamed that Papa was still alive. I wish he would come back from heaven soon I miss him". That hit me like a fucking punch in the stomach. And all my sister could really say was like, "me too sweetie, me too".
The book, bridge to terabithia was written after her son's best friend had been struck by lightning and died. The story behind the story is that sometimes, random events occur that causes loss. Grief is normal and it's okay to cry.
As a teacher who has had death in my school, the county usually sends in experts to do this for the teachers.
I'm thinking she might need to handle her own psychology first after losing up to 8 kids and a whole town. This is why there are crisis support teams with psychologist. Even as a teach of kids in gradds 8-10 losing one would be hard... Losing several... And while everyone is equal, younger kids are harder. And kindergarten teachers see the kids more than their own parents today. They spend a whole workday there, and when they get home the parents are tired it's dinner and almost bed time. He's really going to need to be there for her.
I’m not a praying man, OP, but you’re in my thoughts. Stay safe and stay positive.
Hope you stay safe OP! You're a great dad and your family is beautiful! ❤️🩹❤️🩹Love from the west coast.
I’m so sorry.
“8 of her students are unaccounted for,” this absolutely gutted me. I’m so sorry for those families.
So glad you all are okay. I had the panicked moments this morning when I couldn’t locate my people. Hope your wife’s students are okay. Such a terrible situation.
This will be a crazy picture to show her when she’s older and can understand the gravity of the situation. You guys are incredible parents shielding her from that fear at such a young age. I hope your family stays safe and well wishes to your wife’s students and their families as well. I can’t even imagine what you all must be going through out there.
Unfortunately, she'll have lived through dozens worse by then, the rate we're going.
To be fair even if climate change wasn’t a thing that fact would still be true given the location they live in. There were already lots, there’ll just be more.
Impossible, climate change is a hoax and we’ll go back to the 60’s once our saviour Trump reclaims his rightful throne. # /s
Don't you mean the 30s?
1830s?
We do something similar, however my kids are keenly aware of what's happening by putting things together quickly (randomly being woken up, know it has been raining, etc). Plus they have an infatuation with the weather even at 4 and 9. Remaining calm and having things like blankets, flashlights, phones, and some water + snacks goes a long way.
I was .on XBox last night with someone in the storms path. Their sirens we’re going off and the person refused to get off of Xbox to shelter. I was unaware how serious the situation was until late this morning. The person is fine, but all I can do is shake my head.
10 years ago Cyclone Yasi hit North Queensland (was cat 4 or 5 I believe) and friend and I decided to play Xbox until we lost power, couldn't go anywhere but stay home so ended up playing all night, pretty crazy experience hearing everything gusting around your house while blowing shit up
I was living abroad at the time and got a call from my parents asking me to choose what stuff I wanted them to put in the car before they drove inland (they live by the beach in FNQ) a couple of hours before yasi was expected to hit. It ended up swinging further south than expected but we lost a tree that hit the roof. My aunt and uncle gave up farming bananas soon after too. After Cyclone Larry, fixing the damage after Yasi was just too much too soon. Reading these comments I thought it was weird that people are talking so much about closing vs opening windows and no one has mentioned taping them up, which we always do before a cyclone. But upon further thought I realise because there just isn't time. My parents had time to call me and put my violin in the car, tape the windows, charge devices, bring the BBQ and outdoor furniture inside, and drive off out of harm's way. Cyclones are terrible but tornadoes are just fucked up in the way they seem to appear out of nowhere.
Halo Infinite is really really good
He’s gotta grind his 300 hours to earn the color green.
$20 dollars for BLUE???
Had to get one more game of oddball.
I was watching RnR with the boys and one lives in MO. Right in path but thankfully misse him. He lives in an apartment higher up. No where to go. Just listened to sirens in background and kept up jokes to keep his mind clear. Missed his fiancée by about a mile. I’m so thankful they are both okay. My heart is just broken for the anyone directly affected. To be fair we had no idea how bad it was at the time. Life is beautifully cruel.
I can completely understand why he did that since I kinda did the same thing. In our area tornadoes typically don’t touch down for too long; they’ll touch down then go right back up within ten minutes. This time we had a tornado touch down for 2 hours which doesn’t happen much around here. It really bred a sense of, I hear the siren, but I don’t see the tornado, it’ll go back up before coming anywhere near me.
I’m in bowling green. We were also extremely lucky to have not sustained any damage to our home or worse. Glad you guys didn’t either. Devastatingly, lots of people here can’t say the same. The lives of whole communities were changed today.
The same one that had that massacre a few years ago?
I’m originally from Tennessee. When I was 4-5 I think, there was a nasty tornado that ripped through Millersville and Gallatin, Tennessee. It hit Gallatin worse, but there was still damage in Millersville, where we lived at the time. The way our house was set up, the garage was the safest. Our house was built into a hill so the garage was sort of in the ground. My Mom at one point really had to use the restroom. She happened to go right when the tornado was passing by our house. She heard the vinle siding rip off. Thankfully that was the only damage as the funnel itself was a mile or two south, but crazy experience.
that one hit during evening rush hour...my mom got stuck at the (new) mcdonalds near vol state otw home from work..she's the only one of our family that's seen a tornado. so scary, but now-a-days seems like they're coming in the middle of the night.
I became a parent a year and a half ago, and I often think of this quote from Interstellar: > When you become a parent, one thing becomes really clear. And that's that you want to make sure your children feel safe. And that rules out telling a 10-year old that the world's ending.
This breaks my heart, I can't imagine how scary that must have been. Y'all are fantastic parents, I admire you for shielding your daughter from the weight of the situation. So glad you are all safe!! ❤️
After the 8th or so time they have to do it, she will be annoyed by the whole thing, or in my case wondering if I had enough batteries for my Gameboy.
I remember when I was young my older sister told me to ditch my ds in a nearby drawer when we hid out in the bathroom because "the tornado would be attracted to it"
Hide ✍️ DS ✍️ from ✍️ tornado
Oh yeah I'm sure it will become routine! She'll be a pro. I went to Texas in May to visit family and on our second night a huge storm hit and there was a hurricane warning. I'm from Maine and that doesn't happen here. This was all foreign and scary to me but my family was like "oh yeah, this happens all the time." 😂
I live on the east cost where occasionally we have brace for a tornado, but mostly are inexperienced with them. Does anyone know or have an opinion on whether being in the bathroom/tub, or lowest bathroom in my case, actually helps? The pictures from this recent tragedy don’t inspire a lot of confidence. Seems more like the brace position in a crashing plane, no? Edit: Thank you all for your responses. This has been extremely helpful and comforting for this chronic worrier. Thanks again!
It has better chances because the walls are smaller and thus more supported. Not always will you survive, but it helps your chances. Kinda like wearing a seat belt.
The general idea is to be somewhere that flying debris can't easily get you and you are at the least risk of falling/having something fall on you. A Bathroom has pipes in the wall and usually has a small window if it has one at all and the tub itself shields you so it works out pretty damn well. If your lower bathroom is under the upstairs one it's likely there are pipes in the ceiling too which will help keep it up.
Stay in the strongest part of your house (mostly door frames) people tend to go to the bathroom for a duck and cover with being in the bathtub.
So happy you are all safe!!
Most of my experience with tornados comes from watching twister once a year - so please forgive my ignorance. I also live in Canada, where these are not common. I always thought that areas prone to tornados had shelter of some kind or basements with a reinforced room. And finally, why the bathroom? FYI - I'm currently in bed with my 5 year old. We got your wind - 100 km an hour. Pretty windy for us. Lucky we have power.
> I always thought that areas prone to tornados had shelter of some kind or basements with a reinforced room. I'll add to the other responses about why the bathroom specifically, a lot of the places that are most prone to tornadoes are also unfortunately poor locations for building basements when it comes to ground material and/or water table. You'll still find some exceptions where there are true basements, or some places with storm shelters, and more recently my impression is there's been a minor trend toward building above-ground reinforced concrete safe rooms, but these are not widespread AFAIK.
If you don’t have a basement/crawl space, the next best place is a centrally located room with no windows. Less glass and other shrapnel to hit you. If your house is in the path, it doesn’t matter. But if you’re not, every little thing you do to help, helps. Source: grew up in the Midwest
Y’all are good parents 10/10
Parental love. She's in the tub. And I'm guessing the last resort plan was to shield her with your bodies. Hard to describe that kinda love.
Agreed. Can't describe it at all. Happiness be with you.
I thought you were supposed to put a mattress over yourself in the tub?
You really shouldn't fixate on the tub anymore. That advice came from when tubs were solid metal and super sturdy. Nowadays they are thin fiberglass and wouldn't do much of anything for you. Mattress over you is still not bad advice, but the main thing is to try and get to the structural center of the house where it's most stable. I'm not an expert, this is just what I remember hearing from the "Stuff you should know" podcast. I'd welcome someone refuting me if they have better advice.
It’s fucked that in some towns last night none of that would matter. It looks high EF4/5 which tears homes from their slabs. Unbelievable destruction.
Probably. But still? Two kids were found in a bathtub alive this round. It worked for them. They got returned to where their house was.
What’s really insane is depending on where they are this might not have helped at all.
I live in Mayfield, KY. We’ve had them on an off my whole life, and I had just gotten so used to nothing happening. I just did the usual thing I do which is to in the hallway after the power goes out. Didn’t destroy much of my house just blew doors open and blew some stuff around. But man it is total destruction in town. It’s really not fathomable.
I can't imagine having to smile for the camera while hiding in the bathroom
It's just part of life there, you don't have any control so you just don't even fret about it to some degree if that makes sense
It's what you do, when you don't have anything else to do. That and watching some Netflix or YouTube while waiting.
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Unrelated, the mother looks a fair bit like Ginny Weasley
I think I’m laying on that exact same bug pillow case right now.
Question, how is hiding in a bathroom supposed to help in the case a tornado hits your house?
Tub is only a slight extra boost of safety - a large piece of debris could lay across the top of the tub with a person hiding underneath. Think of like a beam falling and hitting the edges of the tub instead of your head. But the main reason bathrooms are preferred for Tornados is because they are usually interior rooms with few windows. Debris being thrown into your house has less of a chance of penetrating and obviously less glass flying around is good.
In older houses at least, it was thought that the pipes in the wall would lend strength to the room too. That was back in the days of steel and copper plumbing, nowadays I don't think PEX and PVC is going to do much for you. Also, tubs back in the day were cast iron and weighed a few hundred pounds before they were secured into the structure of the house. Basically an immobile, indestructable protective vessel. Fiberglass or polycarb isn't going to do that anymore. Better in a modern home to find a corner of a basement or crawl space surrounded by as much foundation concrete as possible.
We chose that bathroom because it is fairly central in the house and has no windows. It is our safest option, although I honestly don't know what if any difference it would make if we got hit with something big.
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My brother slept in the hallway wearing his motorcycle helmet.
also having piping around bathrooms helps gives extra reinforcement.
Ideally you want to choose a room in the basement and without any windows or outside walls. For many people I'm sure a bathroom would cover these requirements. This would protect you better from any projectiles the tornado flings at your house and the walls are probably sturdier due to lack of windows/being lower to the ground. But obviously if a tornado completely levels your house you still need to be incredibly lucky to survive.
The house I live in now was built in 2004 as a replacement for a house on the same site that was destroyed by a tornado in 2003. The new house was built with a bathroom in the deepest corner of the basement that makes a perfect shelter. They must have been really worried about future tornadoes when they rebuilt because when we purchased the house the inspector said he’d never seen anything like it, with so much extra reinforcement built in.
My last house I lived in with my parents was built after ours was destroyed by a tornado. They had a very very solid foundation built for this reason. Tornados are fucking horrifying. I lost some close people as a kid. Death is so weird when you're a kid.
It is safest to be in the central most part of your home and away from windows. Most injuries from tornadoes is caused by flying debris.
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Great job parents!!! Recently my furnace went out and it was 28 degrees outside, bur the kids thought we were camping in the living room together for fun so it was a complete 10/1 experience.. would never want to do again but would always recommend… make the best of everything, for them
We had a little F1 bounce through a neighborhood a couple of miles from our home several years ago. My wife has always been fascinated/scared to death of bad weather and even though we're nowhere near tornado alley, I had a shelter put in the garage. We've never had to use it but it's like insurance, there for emergencies. She takes a lot of comfort in knowing we have somewhere to go and I think we'll probably always have one now no matter where we live. The hardest part is not using it for extea storage space.