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This is why we do what we do people. This is why we
prepare.
Unfortunately there’s only so much you can do, and
while preparing does save lives nothing is 100% guaranteed. While some students
took shelter in a nearby church, at least seven children died at Plaza Towers
Elementary School. Given the short warning, sheltering in place was the only
option they had left.
Check the photos to see the level of destruction in
the before and after images.
The tornado hit fast and 15 minutes is barely enough
to find shelter or evacuate to a safe distance. Some people had underground
storm shelters and that saved their lives. Others moved a few miles away from
the path of the tornado. The general
recommendation is to find an underground shelter or cellar, or move to the
interior rooms at the lowest level of the building away from doors and windows.
Having said that, the tornado completely leveled entire blocks of houses and no
person staying inside would have survive using the wood frame structures alone
for shelter. With an EF-5 tornado ripping everything around you apart, if you
have a shelter you survive, if you don’t you die. It’s that simple.
In tornado prone areas it is crucial to prepare
accordingly. Its only because the people in the area are experienced when it
comes to tornadoes that there weren’t even more deaths.
Some thoughts that come to mind:
*Have a shelter or identify the nearest one to you.
*Have a NOAA weather emergency radio so as to receive warning
and receive updates on the situation, path of the tornado, etc.
*Have a Bug Out Bag ready to go, and keep your
passports, birth certificates, titles, emergency cash and other important
documents all together in a small travel bag, satchel or fanny pact, something
compact that you’ll probably want to leave in a safe. If there’s only one thing
you can grab before leaving this will probably be it. Why not keep it together
with your BOB? Maybe you don’t have time, maybe you are injured or are carrying
a kid and cant deal with a bigger bag. Again folks, 15 minutes to escape is
hardly enough time.
*You want a safe which you can access fast under
stress. A biometric (fingerprint) safe would be a good idea. Mounting them on
the floor means there’s more of a chance for it to remain there even if the
house is completely destroyed. Floor safes are more secure and easier to
conceal anyway.
*Its not a bad idea to add the GPS waypoint of your
house. Rescue personnel both in Oklahoma and the tsunami in Chile and Japan have
the exact same thing to say: There’s no streets, no landmarks or buildings anymore,
so its very hard to tell where a house used to stand. This isn’t just about
finding your floor safe in case you didn’t have enough time to grab it before
evacuating, but also about finding people that may be buried in a shelter under
the debris.
*If possible, work and live as close as possible from
your kid’s school so as to get to them fast during an emergency. I can get to
my kids school in ten minutes, probably five if I speed a little. While you
can’t plan for everything, being able to get to them fast during an emergency sure
helps.
FerFAL
