Find appropriate shelter.
People should identify the best place to shelter well before severe weather is in the forecast. The federal government provides many in-depth resources about how to identify a safe shelter. If you receive a tornado warning, the general rules are:
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If you are outside, go inside.
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If you are at home, go to the basement or an inner room without windows, such as a hallway or closet, on the lowest floor. In these places, it is also a good idea to shield your head and neck with your arms, hide under a heavy table and cover yourself with a mattress or blanket.
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Mobile homes are not safe, and neither are large, empty rooms such as auditoriums, big-box stores and cafeterias, which are vulnerable to collapse.
If you live in a mobile home, make sure that you know of a sound structure that you can get to quickly. If you cannot identify a safe place, ask local officials or emergency responders where you can seek shelter before a storm is even in the forecast; they want you to have this information.
Avoid driving.
When a tornado warning is issued, it is not safe to be in a vehicle. An automobile can collapse in on itself, debris can penetrate it or — in extreme tornadoes — it can be picked up and flung.
Do not try to outrun a tornado. Even in rural areas, you can be stopped by traffic. And the tornado is likely to be surrounded by other nasty weather than can make driving very dangerous.
You may want to get down inside and cover your head, or you can abandon your vehicle and seek shelter in a low-lying area, such as a ditch or a ravine — but be aware that it could flood. The Federal Emergency Management Agency recommends that you cover your head and neck with your arms and cover your body with a coat or blanket, if possible.
Prepare, prepare, prepare.
The absolute best thing you can do is create a plan for your household about where you will seek shelter and what items you will need. This plan should include special considerations for your family, such as what you will do with pets and what medications people might need.
Ready.gov has a guide on how to make a plan for tornadoes and other disasters in several languages, including Spanish, Arabic and Tagalog. Some states also provide resources in languages common in the area, like Minnesota, which has guides for severe weather in Hmong, Somali and Spanish.
Jonathan Porter, the chief meteorologist at the forecasting service AccuWeather, said people should review their plans and the best practices for tornado preparation at least once a year since as families grow and change, their needs can, too. Meteorologists, structural engineers and emergency managers also update their advice to reflect what they learned from recent storms.
