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Old 11-18-2013, 09:41 AM   #4
BB_TX
Montana Master
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: McKinney
Posts: 7,170
M.O.C. #6433
Most all our family and friends live fairly near our home. So when we travel we are never near anyone we know.
When in an private RV park and weather is threatening I always check to see if the park has a designated tornado shelter. Some do. If they do not then I look for the strongest building I see on the property and would head for that if sirens sounded. Have never seen a state or COE type park with a tornado shelter. But many do have cinder block restrooms/showers. That would be where I would head if staying in one of those. Since much of our travel is in the south basements are almost non-existent. But in F4/F5 tornados anything above ground is questionable unless designed specifically for that reason. Those tornados can scour a home down to the slab foundation taking even the plumbing fixtures. Some years ago in Jarrell, TX a lady took refuge in her bathtub. And her and the bathtub were dislodged and thrown some distance. She survived. Fortunately tornados of that strength are fairly rare.
But trying to run from one is also questionable. At night you can't see them and, as Carol mentioned, even in the daytime you sometimes can't. And a car is not a good place to be caught in one either.
To be perfectly honest, I really don't worry too much about it. Having lived at the southern end of tornado alley all my 67 yrs it has never been a big concern. Last time one hit our town was in 1948 when I was 3 and severely damaged our house but no injuries. Have only seen 2 in my lifetime. Although sightings and touchdowns are frequent in this general area, I can only recall one in the last 15-20 years in our immediate area that caused any deaths. And that one hit an area something like a 1/2 mile wide by 2 miles long. That is one square mile in a county of 900 square miles. Of course if you were on that spot that fact doesn't matter much.
__________________
Bill & Patricia
Riley, our Golden
2007 3075RL (recently sold, currently without)
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