I was NOT prepared for that (TORNADO FAIL)

Seems like the weather that hit Martin's house came my way too.

First rain, then thunder and lightning, them crazy-heavy rain, then hail, then wind. It was, to be honest, kind of exciting to watch. Then I get this text message:

THE NATL WEATHER SVC IN UPTON NY HAS ISSUED A

* TORNADO WARNING FOR.
QUEENS COUNTY IN SE NY.
CNTL NASSAU COUNTY IN SE NY.

* UNTIL 725 PM EDT.

Here's the deal: I live on an island in a 1950's era stick-built house on the south shore of Nassau County, NY. Not in the direct path of the warning, but awfully close. We do not have a basement in our house.

As far as tornado preparedness goes, I get a big FAIL. I had no idea what to do. Not only do we not have a basement, we don't even have any interior rooms without windows. My options if I actually saw a funnel cloud seemed to be:

1) Try and create a shelter in the house using sturdy furniture, mattresses, etc.
2) Make a run to my firehouse, about 1/2 mile away. It does not have a basement either, but at least it's of new, sturdy, masonry construction. And there's loads of first aide supplies and extrication equipment available if necessary!

In reality, the rain and hail was so heavy I doubt I'd ever have seen a funnel cloud, and going outside with a 1- and 3- year old seemed particularly dumb unless I had no choice. How do people actually see a funnel cloud coming through these storms?

So what happened? Nothing. The rain stopped at about 7:20, and I went out to look around and see if anything scary was going on. Lots of water on the ground, some menacing looking clouds moving away from me, and the most amazing full rainbow I've seen in a number of years.

So, what would you have done? Tornados are sufficiently rare around here that I have not given them much thought.

Dang! Glad your neighborhood and all of you are okay.

A bathtub is a good option if you don't have time to go elsewhere. At least get the kids in there. Preferably a bathtub in an interior bathroom.

My dog somehow knows this and whenever a severe thunderstorm hits she can be found in the bathroom. Once she had jumped in the tub.

Lay low in your tub and cover yourself. Although modern tubs are not as heavy as yesterday's cast iron beasts, they are fairly secure to the structure. Covering yourself, such as with a matress will help protect against flying debris. I', sure you've see pictures of grass blades being driven into tree trunks (or similar images). The matress is to prevent you from becoming a target of high speed projectiles.

I would not try to run 1/2 mile to the fire station. I'm sure the funnel cloud would easily "outrun" you and your family.

If you are caught outside, find a low lying area, such as a ditch or depression and lie face down woth your hands over your head. The ditch helps keep the flying debris above you and your hands over your head is to help reduce head injury if an object strikes you in the head.

Here's more information on our storms from last night. Looking at the map, it seems I was in the "warning" area. Also, there is apparently evidence that there was in fact a funnel cloud!

AccuWeather.com NYC Tornado Scare

As for my house, unfortunately our only bath tub is made of some sort of plastic and is located on the second floor. Not much protection there!

I was watching the storm from the north side of it - the biggest storm passed me before the warning

Do you have a closet in which you could have hidden?

-Blast

Walk in closet right by the front door on the ground floor.

I guess that's my new storm shelter if this ever happens again!

It would be tight, but we'd all fit.

I am naive on this subject, having only been through one tornado in Nebraska (we sought refuge in the basement of a small concrete building but the windows still blew out).

I would think there is an entrepreneurial businessman who digs ground based storm shelters. I suppose a back hoe, some bracing timbers, miracle board or concrete siding then a sturdy door? I would only suppose this could be done fairly cheaply. Maybe not even all the way underground and it could store preparedness equipment/goods as well.

Now that I think of it, NY does not seem a likely tornado area, so perhaps an in ground shelter is overkill b

Huh. Here in the midwest, we deal with that about every week from April until September, or at least it seems that way. To be fair, this year has been pretty light on tornadoes around my place, and I think we only went to the basement once this season.

When I first moved here, I kind of freaked out about every torando watch, but now it is pretty routine. Of course, having a concrete room in the basement makes one feel more secure than a hall closet.

For those of you without weather radios, I recommend the Emergency Email service, which will send Weather alerts to your cell/pager (http://www.emergencyemail.org/). It's a free service, and pretty handy.

Greg

I had never heard of that service Greg! Awesome.

There averages 1-2 tornados/year on Long Island - I was in an F0 in 1969 not far from where the storm was last night (it went just south of me BTW)

The problem with Underground where Jessup lives is the same problem with underground in New Orleans - H2O - He lives on the south shore - and I believe on one of the barrier islands to Long Island - dig, and you have water

First, congratulations on coming out okay.

Second, I used to build and was in on design improvements to an above ground storm shelter originally designed by Texas Tech. Two of these shelters withstood the May 1999 storm in Oklahoma that caused the Fujita scale to be rewritten.

I am not anywhere near your area, but if you have questions please PM me and I will try to help.

FWIW, I have one in my own home. My only regret is I did not make it bigger.

I'd like to know more about that 1999 tornado... The F Scale used to go up to F12 back in the 70's.

Keep in mind, you can be a "safe" distance from a tornado, but the rotating winds around it are still easily strong enough to kill you with debris. There are some unreal videos on youtube showing cars in a parking lot getting blasted up into the air with absolutely NO warning.

Glad you made it through ok. Take care.

You mean the 1969 tornado that I survived? No warings, F0 (baby) and passed my parents house by - missed by about 30 ft (estimated funnel diameter was under 10 ft) - took down a BIG Maple in front of my house, took the roof off a couple of houses acrodd the street, ripped up a BUNCH of 200-300 year old trees in the park a block away, and ended - was on the ground for oh, 14-1/2 mile, total. Dark, windy, rainy and LOUD

A lot of people got lucky, as most of the time it was on the ground was in the park

That's it - total memories of a 6 year old. Only reason I can remember the year is that my parents 2-3 week old car was ALMOST destroyed - a HUGE branch (about 12") came off the OTHER maple, and was falling for the car - it got hung up by the crotch of the tree, and stopped oh, 6" short of the roof of the car

Never heard of that. I had only heard of it going up to F5.

After the storm there was talk of adding F6, but the powers that be just call it the enhanced scale. EF0 thru EF5.

Look at it this way:

When a tornado pulls an interstate highway up (including the road base), it is BAD NEWS!

I am sure you can find more info from NOAA/NWS and The University of Oklahoma.

That happened in the 1997 Jarrell, TX F5 also. That sucker dug stuff out of the ground (including roads!) over a 7 mile by 1/2 mile area. An in-ground shelter had better have a steel door and strong hinges & lock to stay intact through that monster.

Fortunately they're rare, and tornadoes don't have the water problem that is the bad news in a hurricane.