Where do you go when the sirens go off?

[daughter_of_amid_chaos]

They just issued a tornado watch for Rhode Island including Newport. Normally I would not pay attention but I am heading to a high school lacrosse championship game in Providence this afternoon and the National Weather Service is saying severe weather is a definite.

Metal bleachers, no coverage. Oh yeah this should be fun

 

[sunnyday123]

I don't know if we have tornado sirens here, and I can only recall every having one, and they're still not really sure that's what it was. We don't get earthquakes but once every 20 years or so and then again, no one is really sure what it is. We're very boring weather-wise.

 

[funkychunkymonkey]

All 3 cats go in carriers in the bathroom, hamster goes in his ball,in the tub and I usally go out on the deck to watch the action. Last month they went off here 3 times, was pretty scary, but no major damage.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I was taught to get into the tub with a blanket over me as a child, but that was back when bathtubs were all metal. Now with all the fiberglass tubs out there, I wonder if that's as safe. Also, what if you have just a shower?

We don't have sirens where I live now, but I suspect I'd go to closet that has all interior walls or just sit in the hallway if I heard there was a tornado in the neighborhood. . .after I'd been an idiot and stood outside taking a few pictures. (During Gustav I was literally swept off my feet doing just that.)

Yes you still get in the bathtub however you need to have a mattress over you and not a blanket.

It still works. We have a lot of tornados here and many people survive by getting in tub. It is mind blowing that you will see a house demolished and the tub is still in place.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

Yes you still get in the bathtub however you need to have a mattress over you and not a blanket.

It still works. We have a lot of tornados here and many people survive by getting in tub. It is mind blowing that you will see a house demolished and the tub is still in place.

Okay, that makes sense. Of course in the bathrooms of my childhood (come to think of it, the bathroom I use right now is this way!) it would have been next to impossible to get a mattress into the bathroom. All the ones on the bathroom end of the house were doubles that wouldn't have fit in our itsy-teensy bathroom. Maybe that's where I get the blanket thing from.

But we don't get tornados the way ya'll do. Here and there, two or three little ones a year. We DO get them during hurricanes, of course, but that's totally different.

 

[mamamary]

We just got an automated call here in Maryland that we are under a Tornado Watch until 8pm tongiht. I don't think we've ever gotten a call about that before. I guess we'd go into the basement but I don't know if we have sirens or not - I doubt we do.

 

[pixiegoose]

I'm not sure that we actually have sirens here but if there were to be a tornado warning (as opposed to the current tornado watch we're under for the second day in a row), I'd throw/wrestle the cat into her carrier, grab a blanket/flashlight and head down to the first floor hallway (we live in a second floor corner apartment) which is all interior. I should probably put the batteries back in the portable weather radio so that I could bring it with me, too. And I should probably unmute the real weather radio now that severe thunderstorm/tornado season (as much as Mass. gets) seems to be here.

In Indiana, the sirens went off all the time. When they did, the cat would be wrestled into her carrier, I'd grab my bag (which would be pre-packed with cell phone/wallet/keys, flashlight and weather radio- I always pay attention to severe weather because it scares me to death and I llike to be prepared) and we'd head downstairs to the neighbor's apartment (we lived in a second floor corner apartment there, too, but the main hallway of the building wasn't interior).

 

[Lintasare]

If I were at my Grandma's house in Iowa we would all go to the basement bedroom. Though I have never once heard the town sirens go off at any time other than the lunch hour. I remember that being drilled into me at a young age. If I am out playing and the sirens go off at any time other than lunch time go home immediately.

Here in NM I live in an urban area and we don't get tornados here. But I suppose if we did I would go into my bathroom or shove my way into my closet.

 

[Kitty 34]

I usually run next door to my sister's. When the boys were younger I would send them straight to her basement. Now when I'm over there, I usually stand in her garage and watch the storm. The basement steps aren't too far away, tho.

A couple of times we got stuck in the house (usually in the middle of the night) and I would go to our coat closet which is right in the interior.

Yes, the storms were pretty wicked around here last night. Hope all were safe.

 

[clori]

I'm a few miles north of Boston. According to weather.com we are under a tornado watch until 8pm. I have no idea what tornado sirens would sound like or if they exist but I think if they went off the police station would be busy with calls telling people what it is. I'm guessing we would get an automated call. We have a basement but many people are wouldn't know what to do if a tornado was close. Schools here have fire drills but growing up in NH and my kids now in MA have never had a tornando drill.

 

[rszdtrvl]

If our sirens go off, we head to the hills.

The only siren we have is a Tsunami siren.

 

[tchrrx]

Our master closet is a tornado safe room. We have used it twice this tornado season. I keep an emergency supply kit, flashlights, and extra food in there. I moved all of my clothes up the top rail, so that we had a bit more floor space. We were able to have 6 adults, 2 kids, a newborn baby, and a cat in there. It isn't a fun place to be, but we did have a good time catching up with friends that we don't spend enough time with.

 

[emma'smom]

We finished our basement because I was tired of having to go down to sit in a dirty old unfinished basement with storage everywhere. We had company once and all had to go down.

Anyway, now its a kids playroom with a television so we have a couch to sit on and can watch the block by block twister watch and know when its safe to go upstairs again.

We can't hear the sirens from our house. They really need to put one at our end of town. However, the TV gives very good coverage.....

The only issue is in the middle of the night when we have to get up and turn the TV on to make sure nothing is coming. Once we had to wake our dd's up and take them downstairs in the middle of the night.

 

[iwrbnd]

I grew up in tornado alley. We heard the sirens a lot! Usually all the neighborhood dads would immediately go sit on their front porch to watch for it & all the moms would take the kids to the basement!

 

[Cruisin]

This is a very timely thread for me.

I was in the Jackson, Michigan area for the weekend camping out in the middle of nowhere, not at a recognized campground.

We heard the sirens go off last night but since we don't have them here (across the border in Ontario, Canada) we were actually wondering how the system works

Are there different siren sounds, lengths of the siren etc to let you know when it is a warning or a watch and also the radio said something about sounding the all-clear siren. How does that differ from the original siren sounded?

 

[kydisneyfans]

A tornado siren going off around here means that everyone goes outside to look for one. If the lightning is close, then we stay in the garage.

 

[LilyWDW]

This is a very timely thread for me.

I was in the Jackson, Michigan area for the weekend camping out in the middle of nowhere, not at a recognized campground.

We heard the sirens go off last night but since we don't have them here (across the border in Ontario, Canada) we were actually wondering how the system works

Are there different siren sounds, lengths of the siren etc to let you know when it is a warning or a watch and also the radio said something about sounding the all-clear siren. How does that differ from the original siren sounded?

Where I live in IL as a child, the sirens would sound if a watch has gone up to a warning. This means rotation has been seen in the area under the warning. When danger had passed, the sirens would sound a second time as an all clear.

When I was a child and the sirens went off, I would grab my dog and cat and a backpack full of books. I would then head down to the basement and read while trying to get the dog and cat from going back upstairs. I had a horrible fear of sever weather and I have no idea where it came from.

These days I would grab the dogs and go into the storage area under the stairs. While we don't have an actual basement, that area is below ground level since we have a split level home.

 

[Cruisin]

Where I live in IL as a child, the sirens would sound if a watch has gone up to a warning. This means rotation has been seen in the area under the warning. When danger had passed, the sirens would sound a second time as an all clear.

Thanks for the explanation.

I heard the sirens go off at least 3 times but there might have been more.

 

[pixiefairy]

Our townhome is directly behind a police station that used to be a fire department. There is a siren probably 500 ft from my back door...so when it goes off...the walls vibrate and there is NO sleeping through it. Our house is on a slab, so no basement. Safest area of our house is the storage closet under the stairs. It's not too easy fitting 2 adults, a teenager, and 4 other kids in there, but we do it.

A few years back when my sil lived in the area, we'd pack up and drive the few minutes away and hang out in her basement....or rather, the kids and I would, while the others would watch the storm.

 

[MommaSnowwhite]

We didn't hear any sirens last night, but we slept in the basement after looking at the radar. We are about 25 miles north of Dundee Michigan where they had a tornado touch down.

It may not have been comfy with everyone down there and the 3 dogs, but we were safe!