Can You Survive a Tornado?

Do you know what to do to survive a tornado?

The tornado season here in the US is already in full swing. Yesterday there were almost 60 tornadoes reported in places that should not be experiencing severe weather for several more months. The Southern states have also had a rough go of it so far with more to come.

I know that this is not pertaining to affiliate marketing or writing but it does pertain to your personal safety so that you can write and have a successful business,

I have been a firefighter for many years but one thing that most of you do not know is that I was a weather spotter for the National Weather Service for 30 years. I grew up in the Midwest so severe weather is just a way of life. I have been on several tornado chases, (and I have been chased a few times). I have also helped with after storm damage analysis which helps to determine if it was a tornado or just damaging winds and if it was a tornado, determining the strength and size.

Even if you do not live in the United States, you can still experience a tornado. They occur all over the world.

Here is a link to learn all about preparing and surviving a tornado.

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/safety.html

The Joplin, Missouri tornado was the costliest tornado in US history and one of the worst as far as property lost and total loss of life. I started to write a book on this storm, but since I had worked some in Joplin before the storm, and I even knew people that lost their lives, it has been a hard book to finish.

I was out storm spotting near Joplin, Missouri on May 22, 2011. I arrived after the storm and I was there talking with people who lived through it for months afterwards. Many stories are almost indescribable. Here is just a small story of one man's survival.

He was in his pickup truck in the WalMart parking lot when he saw the mile-wide tornado coming straight for him. He only had a moment to tighten his seatbelt and lock his door. He hung on to the steering wheel, (later he saw that he pushed the sides of the wheel flat against the steering column).

As he was flung into the air he remembers being pushed down against the seat on his right side by the centrifugal force similar to a carnival ride. He remembers being slammed to the ground a couple of times only to be picked up again. He even remembers going end over end before rising deep into the vortex.

At one point, he remembers a calm period where he even raised his head a little only to realize that he was inside the tornado. Then he was pushed into the other outer wall of wind and debris and finally spit out onto the ground.

He was hopelessly trapped inside his truck. Shock had set in and he was numb to the pain and to his injuries. He had several broken bones to include his ribs, shoulder, sternum and a life-threatening punctured left lung that would soon suffocate his heart from beating.

He would have died long before he could have been pried out of his truck if it hadn't been for a stranger who came along and saw that his lung was deflated. He performed a field cut into his chest and inserted a tube of some kind to reinflate the lung. Then he moved on to help someone else. It bought time to survive. He never knew who saved his life.

The truck and its passenger travelled several blocks including travelling through the corner of the WalMart store as it was disintegrating under the force of the winds. It was well over a quarter of a mile ride.

The man's skin on his entire left side was sandblasted by debris and his truck no longer looked like a truck. Here is a picture of his truck after it was brought to his farm. The man spent months recovering and will never ride a carnival ride again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Joplin_tornado

Plan what you need to do to survive before this becomes your neighborhood.

Dave.

PS. I saw this tree in the shape of a cross 90 days after the tornado. This tree was about one block from where a church had been before it was destroyed. It was also near where about 20 people had died in various buildings.