After reading about all the tragic tornadoes in Oklahoma and Iowa recently, I was a little surprised to hear a report from a tornado expert on the radio who said we've been lied to all these years about tornado safety. NPR's Wade Goodwyn interviewed Lee Sandlin, author of "Storm Kings: The Untold Story of America's First Storm Chasers." Sandin, says that many of the things our parents and school teachers told us are, at best, "several hundred years of bad advice" about what to do in a tornado.
Bad Advice #1. The safest place in your house during a tornado is the southwest corner of the ground floor.
This is actually a myth, generated by several hundred years of misunderstanding tornadoes. The theory went that, since tornadoes typically track from the southwest to the northeast, if a tornado hit your house head on, the southwest corner would be safest. Nice try, but absolutely not true. According to Sandlin, your best bet if you don't have a storm shelter is in the bath-tub, covered with a mattress. Well designed basements work too. Most deaths and serious injuries from tornadoes are caused by flying debris. A cast iron tub with a cover you could grab quickly affords the best protection. Basements, stairwells, even bathrooms provide better protection than the southwest corner of the ground floor.
Bad Advice #2: If you see a tornado approaching, open the windows on your house to balance the air pressure so it doesn't explode. When they came up with that one, it was believed that some kind of vacuum or low air pressure existed at the core of the tornado that made houses explode. Complete nonsense, and probably the worst thing you could do. The last thing you want is to be dashing around the house flinging open the windows when a twister is approaching. Get to shelter for cryin' out loud!
Bad Advice #3: The best place to build a home to avoid tornadoes is at the confluence of two rivers.
According to Sandlin, this one came from Native Americans who told it to settlers a few hundred years ago. They apparently thought tornadoes couldn't cross water. Either that, or the Native Americans had a very clever plan for getting rid of settlers.
Bad Advice #4: If you're caught in open country, a safe place to ride out a tornado is under a highway overpass.
Wrong again! According to Sandlin, under a highway overpass is probably the WORST place to seek shelter. An overpass becomes a wind tunnel in a tornado. Better to lie in a low spot on the ground or in a roadside ditch. Try to stay out of that flying debris rather than become part of it.
I used to live in the Midwest, and I've had my share of close calls with tornadoes. So, where would I like to be when a Midwest tornado hits? New York! If you'd like to find a property in New York's Hudson Valley, use our search tool over on the right column. Just select an area you are interested in on the pull-down menu and enter your requirements.
originally posted at What Our Parents Never Knew About Tornado Safety
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