Tornado! You're in a car...

[Texas Star]

There's tornado activity here, and I may have to turn off the computer at any moment.

This has reminded me that I don't know what to do if a tornado comes and I'm on the road. I think I recall reading not to park under a bridge, if one could even find such shelter.

What do you do in a tornado, if you're out in a car?

Thanks,

T-Star

 

[Ron H.]

Sir, the standard advice is to get out of the car and lie down in the ditch. Never having tried this, I can't say how well it works. The one close tornado I experienced (across the street) involved heading down into the basement.

Hope this helps, and Semper Fi.

Ron H.

 

[84CJ]

Sir, the standard advice is to get out of the car and lie down in the ditch. Never having tried this, I can't say how well it works. The one close tornado I experienced (across the street) involved heading down into the basement.

Hope this helps, and Semper Fi.

Ron H.

+1

 

[s&wchad]

What do you do in a tornado, if you're out in a car?

Is this a trick question? If I was driving and saw a tornado, I'd go the other way (fast).

… and I'd stay well clear of trailer parks.

 

[tx77901]

I don't have any advice for those on the road, but I do have a suggestion for those at home. If you get the idea that maybe you want to put your family in an interior closet, maybe just one of you should go inside the closet first to check that the closet door can be opened from the inside.

We got locked inside a closet in a rental in San Angelo during a drill conducted to keep my first-grader occupied. We fortunately were able to break out with minimal damage.

 

[Abbynormal]

If you are in a car, either head for shelter or drive at a 90 degree angle away from the twister

 

[feralmerril]

I was going to high school in 1956 in berlin wisconsin. Missed the school by about two blocks. I just googled it, record says it killed 7, I had heard at the time I think, 13.
A aunt of mine dove under a sturdy kitchen table. When she came to, the house was totaly gone! My uncle had a brithday card on the table and a few days later a woman wrote wondering how they faired. She lived in green bay, about 70 air miles away, and had picked that card off her lawn that afternoon when it dropped from a black cloud!

 

[2Loud4You]

Haul assphault the other way!

 

[venomballistics]

They say to get in the ditch and cover .....
"They" also say to just give a mugger your wallet so they can just kill you anyway.

I did it, Im here to tell the story ....
if your aerodynamics and horsepower are on your side ... its the vertical peddle on the right my friend.
determine where the twister is .. and get a clue of where its going ... use that vertical peddle to get lost.
its a fight like any other ... you may win, you may lose but your odds are better than sitting there to take your medicine

 

[Class III]

This happened to me a few years ago.

All I can say is
A) GET IN THE DITCH IF ONE IS NEAR BY.

A1) Stay away from culverts. Tornadoes normally come with heavy rain/flash flooding and you don't want to be sucked into a culvert and drowned.

B) PUT THAT SUCKER IN REVERSE, OR WHATEVER DIRECTION IS ROUGHLY A 90* ANGLE FROM THE TWISTER AND GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY.

I picked "B". I pissed off a few people that had no idea why I was driving like a mad man. But I am still here and seven people where killed by that twister. The road I was on had a self storage facility on the southeast side of the highway. "It ain't there no more".

Class III

 

[venomballistics]

This happened to me a few years ago.

All I can say is
A) GET IN THE DITCH IF ONE IS NEAR BY.

A1) Stay away from culverts. Tornadoes normally come with heavy rain/flash flooding and you don't want to be sucked into a culvert and drowned.

B) PUT THAT SUCKER IN REVERSE, OR WHATEVER DIRECTION IS ROUGHLY A 90* ANGLE FROM THE TWISTER AND GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY.

I picked "B". I pissed off a few people that had no idea why I was driving like a mad man. But I am still here and seven people where killed by that twister. The road I was on had a self storage facility on the southeast side of the highway. "It ain't there no more".

Class III

I like the options within "B" myself ... reverse didnt come to mind ... the "turning brake" did though ... that must have looked fabulous

 

[n4zov]

I have always read the advice about jumping into a ditch and wondered, "Are they kidding?" Persuading my wife to get out of a nice warm car and jump into a muddy and possibly rain filled ditch would require a miracle, and yes she had been in a tornado before! I guess they are assuming that the ditch will serve the function of a protective trench, but from what I've observed of tornadoes, you are most likely to be sucked out and dropped in the next county if the tornado is close enough to offer any protection from debris.

Guess I will have to follow the advice to drive at right angles.

 

[TAC]

Depending on the size and depth of the ditch, you might consider driving your car down into the ditch, then remain in the car.

 

[Andy Griffith]

Of course, you could do like tourists from Japan...

Quick, jump out and take pictures to send back to all your friends!

Wrong!

 

[gunlovingirl]

They say to get out of the car and into a ditch. I've been through a few tornados, and mother nature didn't give me the kahonas required to get out of a car and lie on the ground in the path of a tornado! Uh uh. I prefer to level the playing field and if the tornado can catch up with me as I race away in my car, then so be it. Better to die running than die of a heart attack as I'm laying in the ditch about to be swept up and away!

 

[red14]

Well, Mother Nature blessed me, but I'll take your advice and use my brain too! There's times to be brave, but Tornados always win.

 

[enfield]

Get out of the car, go upwind of it and lie down in a ditch or whatever you can find to get your body below surrounding ground level.

You go upwind, if you can figure out which direction that is, so that hopefully the car won't be picked up and dropped on you.

 

[venomballistics]

not a chance of me getting out of the car and the protection it affords from flyin debris.
Ill be on the move, and moving away at whatever rate of speed is stated on the speed limit sign that flys by X 5 or redline, whichever occurs last
best defense is not to be in harms way