Why no tornado sirens in Florida?

[Lisa loves Pooh]

This may be a stupid question -- but since we are thinking about moving to FLA someday. Do you all have tornado shelters in the ground? Are shelters as common down there as they are here? Are they now building houses with saferooms? I guess when you are on vacation you never think about these things occurring in FLA like they do back home.

The water table is too high (or is that low)....we don't have anything underground except possibly in Northern Florida. But where the devestation occurred this morning....nothing.

They do advise you of what to do--go to a room without windows, a bathroom or something.


As far as the NOAA radio--it is typically a good thing to have and is actuallly recommended as part of the Hurricane Prep Kit.

 

[CourtasanSatine]

We have sirens here(small town in TX) since the volunteer firefighters use them for everything from fires to meeting night(but there's a way to tell it's just meeting night)

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

FWIW...one of the destroyed buildings today....a church that was over 30 years old and was often used for shelter. It could withstand 150 mph winds and it was demolished.

 

[ducklite]

I want to get a weather alert radio...you know the kind that sits there and only turns on and "speaks" when there is an alert. Irony is I can't FIND one...I can find battery operated ones, or ones that while running will get alerts.

Radio Shack! Mine runs on both batteries and a/c. Right now only A/C cause the batteries are dead. Mine sits plugged in but really not drawing any power and only comes to life when it alerts.

$30~

Anne

 

[jillyjoey]

I'm in south florida (ft lauderdale) and we have NO tornado shelters.

I grew up in NH and we didn't have tornados like...ever lol. That said I lived next to a Nuke plant so we had sirens, but they were used for blizzards/hurricanes/evacuations/meltdowns (when you have 5 seconds to get out thats REALLY going to help) Down here...nothing that I've seen.

I want to get a weather alert radio...you know the kind that sits there and only turns on and "speaks" when there is an alert. Irony is I can't FIND one...I can find battery operated ones, or ones that while running will get alerts.

Walmart sells the radios here. I have 3 and 2 scanners. The scanners are actually more valuable during a storm b/c not only do you get law enforcement reports but you also pick up the storm chasers. Then you actually hear where the storm is going. The only thing I can say is I felt much better when we put our shelter in. It was alot of money and its gross and has spiders but it will protect us. But we aren't in a field either we have dips and valleys -- in Florida you are just sitting there like an open target. Until you've seen the destruction of a tornado or a hurricane -- wow -- it is nothing like seeing it on TV. We watched Jackson on TV, then we went downtown to my office -- totally devastating. 3 years later --we still aren't finished rebuilding-- getting close but not done. That's why I can't imagine what some of these bigger disasters have done.

 

[ducklite]

To the PP asking about a "safe room" we use the walk-in closet in the master bedroom as a safe room. It's entirely an interior room (the only one in the house!) and the way that the California Closet style shelves/drawers/etc. are bolted to the walls, it makes it even more safe. It's large enough for all three of us to lay down if we want to.

The house is built entirely of block, and the roof was put on with the latest hurricane tie-downs, so we feel pretty safe.

Anne

 

[froglady]

My downstairs powder room is our "safe" room. That's where we stayed when a tornado hit 4 blocks away. The sky got very green, then almost black, so I grabbed the kids and in we went. We were under a tornado watch, so it wasn't a complete surprise.

BTW, I have a radio, flashlight, water, and a whistle in the bathroom cabinet. I grabbed a couple of down throws from the couch as I was gathering the kids, and I wrapped us in them.

Fortunately, it's rare for FL tornadoes to be as severe as this one. I believe they may also be counting waterspouts in the tally. I have seen several of those over the years, and one small funnel cloud. (Not associated with the tornado that I heard but didn't see.)

 

[jillyjoey]

To the PP asking about a "safe room" we use the walk-in closet in the master bedroom as a safe room. It's entirely an interior room (the only one in the house!) and the way that the California Closet style shelves/drawers/etc. are bolted to the walls, it makes it even more safe. It's large enough for all three of us to lay down if we want to.

The house is built entirely of block, and the roof was put on with the latest hurricane tie-downs, so we feel pretty safe.

Anne

That's what I was thinking -- the newer houses would probably have.

I would think since you all have in ground pools you could probably still have storm shelters -- mine is a hillside but its the same size as an inground and it is only 6 feet deep/high. A pool is at least that deep. If I had to build my house over - I would go with the safe room because then you don't have to go out of the house.

 

[RitaZ.]

Yes, the news station do show videos of waterspouts and funnel clouds captured by viewers. If they counted them in the tally, then the figures make sense. Tornadoes such as the one that hit central FL today are indeed rare.

 

[floridafam]

I'm thinking that maybe they could use the sirens for other things-any type of civil defense, tsunami warnings (rare but I suppose it could happen), etc.

 

[PrincessTiff]

Did they say what category the tornado was yet?

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

That's what I was thinking -- the newer houses would probably have.

I would think since you all have in ground pools you could probably still have storm shelters -- mine is a hillside but its the same size as an inground and it is only 6 feet deep/high. A pool is at least that deep. If I had to build my house over - I would go with the safe room because then you don't have to go out of the house.

Not sure...if I were to empty my pool..it will pop out of the ground. If a pool has to be drained, or during construction--once you hit water...you have to pump it out until you construct and fill the pool.

Even the utilidors at MK are not underground--they are at ground level, covered in dirt and then Main Street and all the lands are the second story.

Building codes--aren't going to allow it. I am not a building engineer..so I don't have all the lingo as to the engineering reason...other than due to the water table, you cannot build underground.

 

[jillyjoey]

Not sure...if I were to empty my pool..it will pop out of the ground. If a pool has to be drained, or during construction--once you hit water...you have to pump it out until you construct and fill the pool.

Very interesting. Guess the safe rooms are the only way to go.

 

[NotUrsula]

I would think since you all have in ground pools you could probably still have storm shelters -- mine is a hillside but its the same size as an inground and it is only 6 feet deep/high. A pool is at least that deep.]

LOL, It would work if you were a fish, I guess. In a place with a water table as high as it is in Florida (or in S. Louisiana where I grew up), the only thing keeping the groundwater out of the pool is the pressure of the water you put in the pool. As a previous poster pointed out, remove the water and the walls will start to collapse inward pretty quickly.

I also did the "oblivious to the meaning of sirens" thing as a student, only I was living in Tulsa, and the tornado missed me by 3 blocks. I didn't live in a dorm, and it wasn't until I turned on the news the next morning that I found out what kind of danger I'd been in. I still live in the midwest, and after nearly 20 years in Tornado Alley I STILL cannot shake the feeling that going into a basement to shelter from a storm is the wrong thing to do. Do that in a hurricane and you'll drown tout-de-suite. I still feel safest with the shelter technique that I learned as a child -- get into the bathtub and put a mattress over your head.

 

[RitaZ.]

I still feel safest with the shelter technique that I learned as a child -- get into the bathtub and put a mattress over your head.

That's how a lot people survived Andrew. I can only imagine.

 

[froglady]

Yes, the news station do show videos of waterspouts and funnel clouds captured by viewers. If they counted them in the tally, then the figures make sense. Tornadoes such as the one that hit central FL today are indeed rare.

Exactly. They tend to be much smaller, not as damaging, and very localized, but there are quite a few of them.

Almost any severe thunderstorm is capable of producing a tornado, which is why we have so many watches. Thank God that the majority of storms do not produce them.

 

[NotUrsula]

I don't have to imagine. I rode out both Betsy and Camille in a bathtub.

FWIW with my experience of 20-some years in each risk region: I'll take a hurricane (even a Cat5) over a freaking tornado ANY day.

 

[jillyjoey]

I don't have to imagine. I rode out both Betsy and Camille in a bathtub.

FWIW with my experience of 20-some years in each risk region: I'll take a hurricane over a freaking tornado ANY day.

Why? people here are now telling us (after Katrina) that hurricanes are much worse. I'd rather have neither. I know how frightening a tornado is.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Why? people here are now telling us (after Katrina) that hurricanes are much worse. I'd rather have neither. I know how frightening a tornado is.

They aren't speaking in terms of damage that results...

You have notice with hurricanes.

With Tornados all you have is notice for a quick duck an cover.

Tornados are not events you can evacuate and get out of harms way.

For a natural disaster--a hurricane is the "best" destructive disaster you can plan properly for.

Earthquakes, Tornados--you just do not have the luxury of one to several days warning.

You cannot prevent a natural weather disturbance--you can only deal with it. I'd rather have a hurricane that I can personally avoid than teh other two disasters for which I pretty much can do nothing but save my life.

 

[NotUrsula]

Because hurricanes are not surprise parties. You know that they are coming and you can prepare. You can anticipate just how strong they will be and build your house (or find a shelter) that is strong enough to withstand the wind and rain. Or you can evacuate if it is prudent. You can't get surprised and sleep through them.

There is no above-ground building that I've ever heard of that can take a direct hit from an F5 without falling down; those things have a tightly focused wind strength of over 300 mph! Tornadoes give you as little as maybe 3 minutes' warning -- in my house I have to pick up my sleeping children and bolt down two flights of stairs in that much time, not to mention finding the panicked cat who hides when she hears the sirens. In the middle of the night I don't even hear the sirens, though there is one less than 50 yards from my house -- I'm a heavy sleeper, and I depend on DH to hear them. When he's out of town during the peak of tornado season I'm afraid to sleep. (Well I was; now I have an emergency radio that I can turn up REALLY loud.)