Yes very seriously. In our town the sirens aren't sounded unless there is a tornado or funnel sighted going towards our town. So if there is a tornado warning in our county and we are in the path of the storm then I take the kids and head to the basement and go to our neighbors across the street and have her come over, she lives alone and is elderly and I don't want her alone if there is a tornado, DH usually keeps watch.I lived thru a night with 13 storms, which there is a movie and book written about it, Night of the Twisters by Ivy Ruckman.

If there is a warning in your area, take cover, it isn't worth the chances you take by not taking cover.

Stacie

Yes, I do!

I just bought a new battery for my weather alert radio!

Are you talking tornado warnings or tornado watches? A watch means that the conditions are favorable for the formation of tornadoes. A warning means there's one on the ground confirmed by radar or trained spotter.

For a watch, I don't get too worked up. I do pay attention to the weather a bit more than usual. For a warning, I'll usually track the tornado(es). Often when they strike there's multiple tornadoes in the area. I often go out and observe the sky myself but with all the trees around it's a bit blocked too. But when the sky turns that murky green, I know something's churning.

My annoyance around here is several of the better meteorologists have been cut from the stations (for budget reasons) and some of the goofballs they have don't have the experience the others had so I rely even more on my experience. I'd really like to get a direct feed of the radars, or if someone Wills me a fortune, my own radar unit. The internet is useful, but not current info.

oh absolutely, after having lived in Norman Oklahoma and being in a few tornadoes I sure do. Norman has some of the best weather teams around since the Weather and Radar school is there, NOAA, National Weather Center. I miss that, if those guys came on saying to take cover you had better get yourself below ground! They don't call it Tornado Alley for nothing.

Oh, you bet I do here in Oklahoma! As soon as we're under a tornado watch and I know there are storms approaching, I get out my large tote and put my purse inside, phone, a weather radio where we can listen to our local TV stations (or music, lol).

When there's a tornado warning about 10 miles from us, we get to the cellar ASAP.

I don't go to an inside part of the basement every time a siren goes off. We have them for severe thunderstorms and I pay attention to the weather reports. If there's really something in my immediate area like a sighted tornado I would. There's only been one time either of us have actually gone to the basement and there was a tornado very close to us - we supposedly only had straightline winds. In any case we had a bunch of down trees but none on the house.

Last fall we had record low barometric pressure one day and high wind warnings but no sirens. I went to bed in my bedroom the one time I probably should have gone to the basement. Trees fell on the house right over my head. Fortunately they didn't crash through. I didn't think my house was all that well constructed but it must be better than I think.

Oh, yeah! We were in the basement @ 3 a.m. with our 3 little grandkids when the tornado siren went off during the night.

You bet I do. I also have a bag that I put purse, jewelry, phone, radio, flashlight and medications into that goes with me if we have to go to the cellar. I also take the dog with me to the cellar.

I do, too. I'm amazed so many of you have sirens in your towns. Florida ranks 3rd (just behind Texas and Oklahoma)in most tornadoes per year and I've never seen a storm siren anyplace or lived anyplace where they had them. We don't have basements either. I do have a walk-in closet sort of in the middle of the house, so that'll have to do.

I think I would if I lived where they occur.
Here in California we just have earthquakes and there are no warnings.
But we do get a warning if the nuclear power plant up wind is having a radiation leak. I hope I never hear it except for testing.
Stay safe.

If there is a warning we take cover. I think we have taken cover three times in the last 20 years. I wish we had a basement, but they just don't build them around here. Stacie, I always read Night of the Twisters to my fifth graders. They always enjoy that book.

Not really. When the sirens went off in 2009, or was it last year?? I don't remember. I did pull the little chest out of the closet I use as a "hide hole", put a flashlight, a bottle of water and my helmet in.

Then I walked outside, and looked. It was erie quiet, and really dark north west, north, and north east of us. A tornado hit 3 miles from us, as the crow flies. Never saw or heard anything from it where I was.

I never did go in to the closet. Somehow, have always been ok with my own gut feeling.

Kath, I do go to bed. Never stay up extra late...

Moni

There has been a couple of time we headed for the basement here in North Central ND and yes tornados have touched down quite close, but cross my fingers and toes, our tornados don't seem as severe as other states, but it is not worth while taking a chance. We seem to get with more straight line winds and there is no warning for those. I have seen and driven thru one tornado in So Calif in the desert not realizing it was one, and they do have them in centra Ca. but most of the time it is dust devils which can do alot of damage also

Live in a condo, and the safest place for me is my front bathroom. It's on the ground on the front. Have sat in the bathtub couple times. In fact, last week.

during a WATCH I keep up on the news or from the direction the clouds are going. Might go to bed if it will pass by . During a warning and the sirens are blasting, I'll go to the basement with the girls. A couple of years ago we did have a tornado, I could hear it from the basement. It caused alot of damage before coming to our house. Here, a few heavy things came off the ground and took some trees out before curving to the pasture just south of our house. The debri left dents in the garage and house but the roof stayed put! We were truly lucky.
I do take the sirens seriously.

No sirens here but I do have a weather radio/alarm. The weather stations put out warnings without actually getting reports of a tornado or funnel cloud, just rotation within a storm. I usually check weatherunderground or the TV to see how close it is to my area and if its anywhere near or heading to me. . i've only had to take cover during hurricane Charley-the wind was howling, the sky turning pink from blown transformers, things hitting the house. Unnerving.

Interestingly--I'm terrified of tornandoes. Twice, while travelling we've been VERY close to major tornadic outbreaks. In one case, we must have been just a couple of blocks ahead of it (possibly less!), when it crossed the highway, tossing around tractor trailors like matchbox cars.

But no, the occasional tornado warning isn't a big deal to me. In the area of the country where I live, actual tornadoes are extremely rare, and when they do hit, generally only knock down a couple of trees, maybe damaging someone's roof or garage a bit. We just don't get the kinds of tornadoes that hit in the midwest or the south. The warnings simply don't usually turn into anything at all. And there are no sirens for them. We don't have warning sirens for anything--not since we used to have air raids in the 50's.

We live out in the woods and there are no sirens or warnings here. Sometimes we'll see something on TV that shows our county under a watch. Fortunately, our house is halfway down a hill with a big ridge behind us to the south and another one to the west, we're kind of nestled in a crook. If a tornado was to come by, it would probably skip right over the hill and miss us. It's very hilly here so not the best conditions for tornadoes.

It depends on how close it is. Most will go outside and look. If you can see it, take cover. Often when it's a common occurance, you ignore the warnings.

But then you get an F5 like May 3, 1999 and are reminded how deadly a tornado can be.

I do take the warnings seriously. For watches, I keep aware that conditions may turn for the worse, but until they do, I continue about my business.

About goofy weather people on TV, I do not dispair. They are not the ones who issue warnings. In our area, warnings come from the National Weather Service and the Sherriff's department. Those people are the ones who order the sirens to sound. Our sirens will also be sounded if one of our local authorites spot a funnel.

However, all three of our major TV stations have good weather persons, and one is outstanding.

Yes I do. Where I live they are very prevalent. I actually had a tornado touch down in my neighborhood and do damage. I have also had major tornadoes touch down in my surrounding counties wiping out entire communities. I have a weather radio on all the time. Take them seriously I could be a matter of life and death.

Yes because we don't have them often and the weather pattern in the country is changing. The western part of Mass was hit pretty hard and that is unusual. The weather patterns are so different.

So far, Lake Michigan has 'protected' us from strong winds and tornadoes many times. (We are west of the lake; different story to the east. The storms tend to split off to the south of the lake.)

DH, our Westie and I spent an hour in our basement only once in the last ten years. We often hear the 'lightning warning' siren from a nearby golf course. That time we heard the "Take cover immediately," message that is broadcast from speakers in town. It's really strange to hear 'Big Brother' *talking* to you!

yes! Having lost a home in a tornado in a place with no sirens, I take it very seriously when the sirens go off.

I do take the siren warnings seriously. Around here, they do not blow the sirens unless a funnel, or a very threatening cloud with a vortex in it, has been spotted. I've got place in the basement reserved for such events. It's in the SW corner under a heavy workbench. I've examined aftermath photos and came to believe that one needs protection from falling and cave-in debris. For example, I've seen a house that was shoved off its foundation and then dropped part way into the basement. it came to rest on stuff that was in the basement. One of my concerns is rupturing a gas line and getting trapped if a gas fire results.

I don't worry about what happens to me if I am killed outright.

Fortunately, I have had to take shelter only once in the last 10 years. We watch the channel carrying storm news and they will show the storm center and it path. We've had threats, but the worst was a hail storm about 4 years ago that did a lot of damage to autos and roofs. It banged up my roof vents.

We had two tornado watches this week in central Alberta. I only kinda sorta but not really worry about them when the weather is a little warmer out and I can see big cloud movement. So far, in Calgary itself, I've never seen a tornado. Edmonton had a killer one about 20 years ago (it hit a trailer park), and Central Alberta had one about 10 years ago that killed a lot of people in a camp ground. We have many tornado's each year, but they are usually smaller ones that maybe topple over a silo or two. No 'big' damage.

I have been in Iowa for 5 1/2 years and the tornado sirens sounded twice when I worked at the hospital. One time I was driving home from Des Moines and when I pulled into my driveway my neighbor told me the sirens had just sounded but we didn't see anything so I just ignored them. I have a place in my basement which is under a stairway and that is where I would go with a cat or 2 or 3. If a tornado was really coming my way I would not have time to get all 3 cats into their carriers in the basement. I liked what some of you mentioned about taking a tote to the basement with your purse, jewelery, flashlight, etc. Once in the basement I would not know when to come out because they don't sound an all clear siren here. At the hospital, the police dept. calls and tells them when it is all clear.

I grew up in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. It seemed we had tornado watches several times a week in the summer, and I don't remember that anyone took them seriously. With a tornado warning, my parents would turn on a radio or tv, but we didn't go to the basement.

In fact, even when a tornado uprooted a huge old tree and knocked it on our house, we weren't in the basement.

I think it's a matter of overload. It's just like the "color" warnings after 9/11. When you're at level orange every other day, you just stop paying attention.

jemdandy -- I wondered if anyone would bring that up.

I know to stay out of the way of a potential chimney collapse. I guess being under a stairway could be either very good, or not! Our prevailing winds are SW. Maybe I should put a heavy table in that corner of our (unfinished) basement. Our egress (window well) is there.

Do people turn off water and gas before taking shelter in a basement? Would it help?

We don't have warnings here. The last time I remember a tornado in our area was in the 1980's. There were two small ones in the country that tore up some chicken houses.