Severe weather warning

[Ozz]

Many of us think that the Tornado 'take cover' sirens in many communities are for warning us in our homes, or RV's. They are not, they are not designed to wake us up, and as a rule, do not go off unless certain criteria is met, this varies in different communities and regions.
We had two Tornado's in our area here in Northland Kansas City, Missouri last week, just missed our home. This was at around 2:00 in the morning, the sirens did not go off. We lost a few trees and had a little wind damage, nothing like a few miles away, where homes, shopping centers and businesses were blown away.
Long story longer, but GET A WEATHER RADIO, program in your local counties, and what type of alert you want. They have flash flood, Tornado warning; watch, severe thunderstorm, and so on.
Don't rely on the sirens and do not just hope it won't happen to you.
Put the radio by your bed, and program it carefully, if you have all the warnings on it, you will soon turn it off and possibly miss 'The big one'.
Ozz

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

DITTO! GOOD POST OZZ!!

Glad you were not "hit".

[tom41]

Ozz man, We sure used our weather radio this year and last year also, while in georgia, then Fla, on to Gulf shores then in Ala, and even in Tn this yr. tornados either touching down around close by or just warnings. We bought ours a couple yrs ago at Radio Shack, and it will change counties and states while traveling. It will also give flood warnings , so yes I too would recommend a weather radio to every one even if you dont travel fulltime as many of us do. Good post Ozz!
Tom

[OntMont]

Weather radio YES! Program it properly for your circumstances. When it goes off, go to a local TV station with good doppler radar and weather services for even more detailed information, or use an internet based weather radar such as http://tiny.cc/weatherradar Although this is from a Gulf Coast based TV station, the images cover all of the US and most of southern Canada. these sources will get you down to almost street level information on the location of severe storms.

Now your only problem is what to do in the worst case scenario... but you figured that out when you arrived, didn't you????

[boylanag]

We agree with you all. Our Radio Shack radio is used 24/7, when traveling or at home. To find the county code that we are in so that we can place it into the radio, the NOAA Weather Radio site is http://nws.noaa.gov/nwr/indexnw.htm Our radio got a real workout this winter in FL and has made us feel more at east in all of our journeys.