Yikes - glad it wasn't worse for you!

No personal experience, but here's what the Nat'l Weather Service says...

https://www.weather.gov/safety/tornado

If one is very close, pull over on side of the road, get out and find a ditch to jump into. I've been in that situation-we've also outran some successfully (by going the opposite way of the tornado), and got caught in traffic also and it is really scary to get out of your car. Also, you can find a store you pass by that has a bathroom-good chance they are full already. At that point-people will squeeze you in somehow.

Our infamous May 5th tornado, we outran and went the opposite direction it was headed. We lived in a rent house, while building our new house at the time with no shelter.

I remember one time, we were coming home from going out to eat in this really good restaurant in a country town and we got BEHIND a tornado-and cautiously followed it until we got home. Far away, but we could see it in front of us.

If you were in a long construction zone with one lane, no merging, no exiting... either creeping along or standing still are kind of the only two options. Try not to stand still where there can be a lot of debris, try to be in low ground if possible.

"If one is very close, pull over on side of the road, get out and find a ditch to jump into."

^^ This. You want to get as low as possible and out of the way of flying debris as best you can. Do not stay in the car, and try to put some distance between you and the car if possible in case it gets blown about by the tornado.

When I was a child, we were told to get into a ditch or under a bridge or overpass, if there was one nearby.

I've seen a few tornadoes, but none ever got that close to me, fortunately. I could see them in the distance, and none that I saw were that big.

A highway overpass is now known as the worst place to take cover from a tornado. As scary as it sounds, a ditch is considered the best place to shelter when caught outside on the highway. Try not to push the snakes and other critters out of the way.

Thanks for that info - I'm glad I brought it up, since I think a lot of people believe that an overpass might provide shelter, especially at the upper corners, but since there are no walls, the wind can just get funneled through at higher speeds.

Fortunately I have no seen any tornadoes since I left Texas. I was sort of at the southern end of Tornado Alley in Texas, but tornadoes can happen almost anywhere in Texas. They are least common in El Paso. I used to see lots of dirt devils in the fields in August, but those only happen during dry weather and never got very big.

That happened to me last year. I got an alert on my phone to get out of the car and into a building if possible. I went to a large gas station in the area and the station asked everyone crowd in the bathroom.

Thank you all. We were watching the radar to see if the worst of the storm was heading which way, and we thought we might be clear of it, but it was still very nasty. I'm sure others headed off the highway to seek shelter as otherwise the highway would not have gotten as empty as it had.

Of course, being on the east coast will all the hills and curves and trees and such, it's not like you can really see them coming from a distance...

My friends and I tried to outrun a tornado in 1974 after we left the mall, we decided we better get off the road so pulled into the drive in A&W. We watched the tornado turn the corner where we turned into the parking lot and continue down the road a bit and we watched as the nearby curling club imploded killing 7 people. Scariest thing I had ever seen. When I got home I ran into the house and my brother and his family were there, they lived in a mobile home park and always came to our house whenever there were tornado warnings. I told everyone I had seen a tornado and what happened and they didn't believe me until I made them listen to the local radio station. I am glad you made it home safe.

Wow Cherryfizz...scary stuff!

Tornadoes can be rain wrapped so you may not see them even if they are within sight. I saw one a few years ago. It was off in the distance, but had a curiously small swirling cloud near the top. It was like a lone storm moving through by itself. I think radar had picked it up. DH and I looked for it online later and confirmed that is what I saw.

This was off in the distance going away from me so I wasn't afraid. If I were closer, I would pull off to the side and go into a building or get into a ditch.

We were in that kind of weather while away one day. We pulled over and went inside of a business, who welcomed us in where they were sheltering down.

Driving to FL 2 weeks ago we were in this situation. We were on a 4 lane divided highway and had been in awful rain for 2 hours. We had just gone thru an intersection when the Tornado warnings on our phones went off. My DD called from their car (just ahead of us) quite anxious because her DH was going to keep driving. She had been on her phone and saw that we were driving into the hi wind situation and had a Panama City news station up, saying to take cover.

I told them to turn around and head back to the intersection where apts were being built. I thought the clubhouse looked open but it was not. Apts were nearly finished and workers were out watching the storm. I ask and they would have let us in. It was still pouring rain. We sat in our cars as the major storm was south of us and let it pass. We all felt comfortable with that. Between the two cars we had a 3 yo and 4 month old twins.

When we arrived to the resort area, it was completely shut down and eerie. The storm had gone thru this area along the Gulf. We did not see damage but first world problems, it was difficult to find food and groceries!

Had tornados in Chicago area recently.

I first glanced too quickly at the title of this thread and misread it. I put together the lowercase "r" and the following "n" to make "m". I thought, Hmm, I'm really not very tomato savvy, this one isn't for me.

The only time I've been near a tornado was in the 1960s. I was driving to work when a minor tornado appeared. There had been no warnings. I drove my little Healey into a low spot beside the two lane road -- not quite a ditch but lower than the road -- and waited as it whipped past. Weather was dry everywhere else. It was very minor, quickly gone, no serious damage.

LOL @ Elmer

When my son was about three, a friend of mine was in a new job at the local radio station. It was his first day "live" on air, and the tornado sirens went off while driving home from work with my son in the truck.

My friend lost his cool a bit, and exclaimed something like this ... a tornado is on the ground! Take shelter immediately!

My son instantly became just as excited, loudly proclaiming ... Mama! A tomato is coming! A tomato is coming! Go home, Mama!