Tornado question............?

Question

People die each year in tornado season and what I don't understand is why are there so many deaths in America when Americans have basements and shelters.

Does a tornado hit that quickly that people don't have a chance to get into their basement? or are some of the shelters poorly built? or is it something else?

I live on the other side of the world and we don't get tornadoes here, so please excuse my ignorance as I know you're having a lot of tornado problems over there at the moment.

Answer 1

Sometimes there is no warning.

Sometimes you're too far from a shelter - especially if you live in a mobile home.

Sometimes you're travelling.

Sometimes you're just plain stupid and go outside to check things out.

Sometimes the tornado is so strong that nothing can save you.

Not everybody is sitting at home watching the local news when a tornado warning hits.

Answer 2

Let's see..

Some people don't take warnings seriously when they should, not all houses have basements or shelters (sometimes you can't find either within a neighborhood), some people try to out-run the danger and get caught and killed in their cars. Yes, they do hit that quickly, sort of, the danger is there and if you are watching the news or listening to a weather radio, you will be warned that it might happen and that you should take cover before it actually does happen, but when it does, the tornado hits the ground in under a second and there is no telling where or when it will actually hit or how long it will stay on the ground.

You can have all the symptoms that a tornado will hit, and then nothing but bad storms and hail happens. You can also only have one indicator and it will hit the ground as a mile wide tornado and then travel for 20 miles or just one second, or it will hop around without any kind of pattern. It's hard to prepare for and to warn everyone that it can happen.

It's a little hard to understand if you never have to deal with that kind of weather, I wouldn't wish it on anyone.. Good question!

Answer 3

Although tornadoes occur in many parts of the world, these destructive forces of nature are found most frequently in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains during the spring and summer months. In an average year, 800 tornadoes are reported nationwide, resulting in 80 deaths and over 1,500 injuries. A tornado is defined as a violently rotating column of air extending from a thunderstorm to the ground. The most violent tornadoes are capable of tremendous destruction with wind speeds of 250 mph or more. Damage paths can be in excess of one mile wide and 50 miles long. Once a tornado in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, carried a motel sign 30 miles and dropped it in Arkansas!

Occasionally, tornadoes develop so rapidly that advance warning is not possible. Remain alert for signs of an approaching tornado. Flying debris from tornadoes causes most deaths and injuries.

Each year, many people are killed or seriously injured by tornadoes despite advance warning. Some did not hear the warning while others received the warning but did not believe a tornado would actually affect them.

Hope this helps a little.... I have lived in the mid-west (USA) all of my life... from South Dakota all the way down the middle to Texas!! Tornadoes can come and go so quickly, some towns that have been hit don't even know that they are coming... and sometimes... the storm changes directions!!! It is really scary... In Texas, most houses don't have basements or storm shelters!!  What is really scary is when a storm develops in the middle of the night... sometimes people don't hear the sirens outside thier homes!!

Answer 4

When a tornado touchdown it travels about 80mph so warning is too late that's the main reason there's not enough time .

Answer 5

Only some areas in the US (America is the name of the continents) in the tornado zone have houses with basements. A lot of places that have tornadoes also have too high of a water table for basements to be dug. I have never known anyone who had a "shelter". Either they had a basement or nothing. People who live in apartments often don't have a basement or shelter. A house with a basement is a lot more expensive to build, so a lot of developments skip that and build on a slab.

Tornadoes form quickly, but a storm that is likely to be tornadic is predictable when it's forming. Also, the air raid sirens sound for like three minutes when a tornado warning is issued for a county, and most people in well populated areas can hear those. The t.v. stations and radios also give accurate up to date info on approaching storms, severity, tornado warnings, etc. There are a lot of storms during the year, though, and it's impossible to stay home and be ever ready to take shelter should one turn ugly. You have to go about your life. So even if you have a basement, you might be at work, or shopping, or at an outing when a tornado happens. You might also be sound asleep, as these things often hit in the middle of the night.

Most of the deaths and injuries in tornadoes are in trailer parks and people caught in vehicles on the road. Prefab homes like that and motor vehicles don't stand up well to mile wide, rotating, 100 mile per hour and higher winds. They're not anchored down, or not anchored well enough, and they get tossed and torn to pieces. The "tornado season" is during warm weather, so a lot of people are at events outdoors or on the road when storms get dangerous.

I hope that gives you some idea.

Answer 6

I live in Oklahoma (have all my life) and I have never had a basement nor a shelter.  Not all homes in Oklahoma have them even though many new houses are being built with safe rooms or shelters.  There are not any public tornado shelters unless you live in a mobile home park luck enough to have one.

Recently we have been dealing with night tornados which are much more dangerous because not only can you not see them but many people are asleep and don't know what is going on.  I think someone else said something about them being so bad and that has been the case many times here that the tornados were so bad or so large or both that was the cause of so many deaths/injuries.

Another thing is lots of times they aren't classified as tornados but strong straightline winds which cause major damage sometimes just as severe as tornados.  In that case the county, per policy, is not allowed to set off tornado sirens so many people don't even know what is coming.

Hope this helps, I have had to take many meteorology classes both job related and degree related so I've learned a lot about them.  Plus because of what I have learned my husband and I SAFELY storm chase in order to get a better understanding of what we have learned.