CookieZenmilk

how scary for you both. we just have snow to contend with, lots of snow. two years ago we had 108 inches.

Jeanne S

Every place has its burdens! A 10" snow shuts this town down!! Can't imagine 10x that!!
Oklahoma is also the earthquake capital of the world too! They happen daily, fortunately most of them are not noticeable. I think oil fracking has made it so much worse in the past 3 years. Take care.

quiltingcandy

I was 8 years old in 1962 living in Mulvane, KS and still remember sitting on the porch waiting to see the tornado before we would go down to the tornado shelter. In Aug. of 1962 we moved to Seattle area and my dad said we would never have to deal with tornados in WA. We weren't there very long when Seattle had a freak tornado. My dad said it was only to make a liar out of him.

tessagin

I've been in 3. 2 in one week when I was 10 and spent some time with my grandmother and her brother. He had a root cellar. took all 3 of us to push the door open. the heavy chest freezer was blown against it. He didn't want heavy appliances sitting where the location of the cellar was because of possible collapse of the floor. The wind is like nothing you've ever heard. The second one happened a couple days later and took the front bedroom off like one would take a saw and slice right through it. Just shirred it right off. It came just before we were about to get ready for bed. One of the barns was in the path as the front bedroom, it was gone.

ManiacQuilter2

I was visiting my great Aunt (who taught me how to quilt) in the middle of Kansas when warning were posted along the bottom of the TV screen. When the horn blew, I got under their heavy dining room table. My great uncle talked me into going outside since it was a few miles west. I was surprised that you could actually see it at night. I have lived thru everything that Mother Earth throws at us and I much prefer earthquakes.

jjs56

Your stories gave me goosebumps! I live in Wisconsin and we have tornados, but, of course, nothing like Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas. I'm glad we have basements here to go to when the sirens go off as I am claustrophobic and would literally go nuts in a small, concrete bunker! We still have the siren warnings. They test them every Wednesday during tornado season at noon. You can hear one go off and then the next and the next as they play off each other. OK, now I'll really date myself -- In the sixties, the sirens were actually created as civil defense warning sirens. There were two distinct sounds depending on whether it was an air raid warning or a tornado. They tested both weekly.

zozee

I lived in KS for two years as a kid. Witnessed several while there, and to this day won't buy a house without a basement.

lclang

I'm from Nebraska and we get tornadoes every year. We have sirens that go off to signal a possible tornado. Go to a basement room without windows if possible. If you don't have a basement go to an interior room without windows such as a bathroom or a furnace room. Take something to cover yourself with, quilts, blankets, a mattress, whatever you can grab in an emergency and wait it out. If you have a battery operated radio take that and a flashlight with you so you can keep abreast of what is happening outside. DO NOT run out in the yard to see the clouds!

dinlauren

I live just a couple of blocks from the sirens and they are LOUD. Thankfully these condo's were built with inside halls and bathrooms, so I take the cell phone, flashlight with fresh batteries and make sure I have shoes with me, just in case the tornado strike and I have to walk through the mess I won't tear up the bottoms of my feet. I was living in Houston when Hurricane Alicia hit...south actually in Galveston County and we could hear tornadoes all night but none hit the little wood frame house I was staying in with friends. When we went out the next day, huge trees were pulled up out of the ground with 10 or more feet of roots showing and chain link fences were ripped across and tossed into a heap right across the street. Lots of damage and of course lots of roof tiles off of many houses. In the middle of the night we saw a neighbor driving out of the neighborhood in that terrible weather....his wife had gone into serious labor and had to get her to the hospital which was some distance away...they had no power when she got there...quite a night...finally either power was restored or the generators kicked in and delivery went fine. So just be prepared with maybe a plastic bin of essentials that you periodically check...flashlights, snacks like individual cheese-its or granola bars, spare batteries etc. and put all in ziplock bags inside the bin. Hope you never have to go through a tornado, because it is a bit frightening, but you are not in a likely place to get them.

AZ Jane

OK, super glad I only have to live through the heat of AZ instead LOL But your town may or may not have a "horn" that blows. But now a days, most locations have an emergency broadcast system that is more sophisticated than just the TV notifications. Many have cell phone notifications of any really bad weather. I would contact your local city hall for info or directions on where to get info for your locality.