I'm including here the info from the tornado safety flyer that was passed out in Relief Society and Primary last week, with tiny changes in the "preparation" section.
If you would like to sign up for the tornado prep kit, here's the info, and give me a call/send an email a.s.a.p.: Basic tornado prep kit will be $6 or less, payable when you get your bag. It will include a little first aid, plain flashlight, laminated checklists, water, snacks, a couple other things and a list of personal items you will need to put in yourself. You could do it on your own and keep putting it off, but you could also let us help you get started!
You can also order an easy-to-use hand-generator flashlight instead of a plain one, and a weather radio with NOAA alert. The flashlight is an additional $8.89 and the radio is $30.49 (both from amazon.com) and that money is due a.s.a.p.
Basic Tornado Safety
this handout contains blatantly plagiarized materials from wikipedia.com, apartments.com, and personcounty.net
- Info to know:
Tornado watch means a storm system capable
of producing a tornado is in your area.
Tornado warning means that a funnel cloud
or tornado has actually been sighted or radar
data has located significant evidence of
rotation in the storm. There is immediate
danger for the warned and immediately
surrounding area -- if not from the relatively
narrow tornado itself, from the severe
thunderstorm producing (or likely to produce)
it.
You can't depend on hearing a tornado in time
to adequately shelter, so use TV or radio
alerts.
Most tornadoes occur between 3 and 7 p.m.,
but unexpected tornadoes are the most
dangerous.
- Preparation:
Determine where you will shelter: a
small room or closet on the lowest level
(without windows) is the safest place.
Keep this place uncluttered.
If you live in an apartment: Ask
management about storm shelters.
Underground parking would be the
“lowest level.” If you do not live on the
ground floor and there is no
underground parking, make friends
with someone on the ground floor who
will allow you to come into their
apartment during a tornado warning. (If this proves impossible, plan to shelter in your own apartment.)
Have a weather radio and tornado kit! A weather radio has a "sleeping" alarm system which will alert you to warnings in your area at any time.
- Sheltering
Tornado watches are very common; generally, be cautious about running any errands, etc. and take some time to “set up camp” in your shelter area—pillows, blankets, tornado kit, bike helmets, etc.
If it is practical or you feel prompted to, move a heavy table to potentially get under. (Follow your plan, but also listen for directions from the spirit and/or your instincts.)
It can be helpful to monitor tornado warnings for nearby areas. But don't set your NOAA alert to
the seven surrounding counties unless you want to be woken up every twenty minutes all night
long during a storm. If you are ready, a local warning should give you plenty of time to shelter.
In the event of a warning for your area, go to your shelter spot with all of your family members,
and your tornado kit. Try to restrain the member of your family who thinks storms are really
exciting from running out to “check” for tornadoes.
On the road: Unless the tornado is far away and highly visible (we're talking really far, not the
kind of far you mean when you say “I went for a long run this morning, honey!”), park to the side of the road (so as not to block emergency traffic), and find a sturdy shelter. If no sturdy shelter is nearby, getting low in a ditch is the next best option (watch for flooding.) Highway overpasses are extremely bad shelter during tornadoes.
