How to prepare for tornadic weather

WICHITA FALLS, Texas (KAUZ) - With overnight tornado warnings issued across Texoma early Tuesday morning, being prepared for severe weather is essential.

Experts gave their suggestions on how to stay safe during tornado season.

“The best way you can prepare for tornadoes is downloading trustworthy sites where you can get weather information,” First Alert 6 Meteorologist Garrett James said. “Our First Alert Weather app is a great source of information that way you can get information directly from Ken Johnson and myself and you can find several updates with that. Not only that, but making sure, especially with these overnight events, that all your devices have a charge on them.”

Keeping yourself informed is important to make smart decisions in an emergency situation.

“Make sure you just take shelter,” James said. “If you’re under a tornado warning and it’s at night time and I know a lot of people here, and I’m guilty of it myself, you hear tornado warning, you go peak your head outside. It’s just what we do. We’re curious, that’s just how humans are. We have this natural curiosity about things and you’re like ‘oh tornado warning, let me go take a step outside and look for myself,’ but at night time you can’t see that happening. So don’t go outside,. If you see that you’re ever under a tornado warning, just go ahead and take shelter.”

If you live in an apartment or are in a multi-story building, it’s best to get to the ground floor.

“I usually tell people the best place to get is in the first floor of a structure in the center room with no windows,” John Henderson, City of Wichita Falls emergency management coordinator, said. “Try to make sure you don’t have a lot of objects, cover your head because the number one way that most injuries happen during a tornado is blunt force trauma to the head.”

While the holidays are not our usual time for severe weather season, it’s always best to stay informed.

For the latest severe weather alerts across Texoma, be sure to download our First Alert 6 Weather app.

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