GreenStrong t1_jdm0h8f wrote on March 25, 2023 at 11:53 AM

Reply to comment by katarina-stratford in Tornado hits western Mississippi as storms knock out power for thousands. A town is 'gone,' resident says | CNN by A179E49GFZ68722R23

The National Weather Service issues tornado watch’s several hours ahead of time to let people know that a tornado is possible, and they issue geographically specific warnings as soon as they form. Cell phones alert people, and there are even special analog radios that respond to the warnings, but stay silent otherwise.

Typically, people do have a few minutes of warning when these monster tornadoes are coming, but they are powerful that almost no shelter can withstand them. Small tornadoes arise and pass very quickly. The NWS often sends out warnings based on radar before they fully form, but they are inherently unpredictable. I was near a small tornado once, I was sitting outside on a porch enjoying the storm, and there were only a few seconds between when rain started blowing in on me and roofs blowing off off houses 200 yards away.

techleopard t1_jdnwbpa wrote on March 25, 2023 at 8:32 PM

The problem is that those warnings are SO common that they are highly disruptive if people were to just drop everything and "seek shelter." It's not like, "Oh, I guess I won't go shopping today, I can stay in cuz I have basement." There's nowhere to go, so to properly plan, you're looking at literally packing up and checking into a hotel. Ain't nobody got the time or money for that.

These tornados always hit at night, too. You can't exactly find an excuse to suddenly go to Walmart at 2am, because Walmart isn't even open anymore.

I've driven 20 miles to wait out a particularly nasty-sounding warning before and the only place I could find was a hospital, and they chewed me out for trying to stay there when I didn't have anything medically wrong with me. The only reason they let us stay there for a few hours was because I had a kid with me who already had PTSD from these tornados and the MOMENT he overheard the ER lady telling us we couldn't stay he started hyperventilating and having a complete breakdown right there in the hallway.