A basement is the safest place in a typical home. Get as low as possible and put as many walls between you and the outside as you can.
What to do
- Head to the basement immediately
- Get into an interior room or under a sturdy workbench
- Cover your head and neck with your arms, a helmet, or a mattress
- Stay away from windows and heavy items on the floor above that could fall through
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House without basement
Ok
Common in Texas, Oklahoma, and much of the South. Head to the lowest interior room with as many walls as possible between you and the outside.
What to do
- Interior bathroom or closet, ground floor
- Get in the bathtub if there's one — walls are usually reinforced
- Cover your head with a mattress, pillow or helmet
- Long term, consider a FEMA-rated safe room
Higher floors are much more dangerous than lower floors. If you can, move down.
What to do
- Move to the lowest floor of the building
- Find an interior stairwell, hallway or bathroom — no windows
- Ask your building manager about a designated shelter area before storm season
- Don't wait for warnings to identify your safe spot
Mobile homes account for 40-50% of tornado fatalities despite being a small share of housing. They are not survivable in a direct hit.
What to do
- Evacuate to a substantial building or community shelter as soon as a watch is issued
- Do not shelter in the mobile home
- Know your park's shelter plan before storm season
- If caught outside with no options, lie flat in a low ditch away from cars and trees
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School
Best if plan followed
Schools should have designated shelter areas and drills. Interior hallways on the lowest floor are typical.
What to do
- Follow staff instructions to designated shelter areas
- Interior hallways, gymnasiums with reinforced walls, or purpose-built safe rooms
- Avoid large open spaces with wide roofs (auditoriums, gyms without safe-room construction)
- Get down and cover your head
Modern office buildings vary widely. Steel-frame highrises have concrete cores that are relatively safe; strip-mall offices are much weaker.
What to do
- Move to interior stairwells or bathrooms
- Stay away from glass exterior walls
- Do not use elevators — power may fail
- Learn your building's shelter policy in advance
Hospitals must have designated shelter areas per building code. Follow staff instructions immediately.
Same as an apartment: get to the lowest floor and interior room. Ask the front desk during check-in if severe weather is forecast — most staff know their shelter plan.
A car offers minimal protection from a tornado's winds or debris. But your action depends on how close the tornado is.
What to do — tornado far away
- Drive at right angles to the tornado's motion — usually south or east — to escape the path
- Head for a sturdy building
What to do — tornado close and unable to escape
- Abandon the vehicle
- Find a low area (ditch, culvert) away from other vehicles and trees
- Lie flat, cover head
- Do NOT shelter under an overpass — winds accelerate through them
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Outdoors in open country
Dangerous
What to do
- Get to a substantial building if possible
- If no building: lie flat in the lowest ground available (ditch, culvert)
- Cover your head and neck
- Stay away from trees, cars, and power lines
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Store or shopping mall
Depends
Large-format retail with steel roof trusses is dangerous — those roofs can collapse. Interior bathrooms, stockrooms, or hallways are safer.
Same as apartment: lowest floor, interior corridor. Most campuses have designated shelter buildings — know yours.
Tents provide no protection. Get to a hard-topped vehicle for a brief drive to a sturdy building, or lie flat in a ditch as a last resort.