By Cynthia Grau/WJEZ News
March began Tornado Season in the Midwest, and it’s never a bad time to prepare for what to do if you find yourself in a storm.
Pontiac Fire Chief Scott Runyon describes different ways to best protect yourself.
“We do the siren drill the first Tuesday of every month. We’ll be doing it again in April. There was already a statewide drill in March. To prepare for this, notification – be aware of what’s going on. Best way to do it is a NOAA radio. They’re not that expensive. $30 maybe. You can get them at any of the big box stores – ACE Hardware (for example). Just get one. Set it to alert so you don’t have to listen to it 24 hours a day. Watch your local weather channels and local news channels, they’re going to keep you abreast of what’s going on. This radio station does a pretty good job of keeping you abreast of what’s going on. Just be aware and know what you need to do if there’s a tornado,” Runyon said.
Runyon describes what the different watches and warnings mean.
“The different levels that we go to, it starts out with watch – we have thunderstorm watch and tornado watch, then we have thunderstorm warning or tornado warning. Watch means conditions are very favorable for something to happen. Warning means something is happening somewhere and be prepared to take cover. Generally, tornadoes come out of severe thunderstorms, which turns into tornado warnings, which means there is one somewhere. It’s happening. It’s in your area. Even if it isn’t on the ground, it’s somewhere. It’s in the atmosphere,” Runyon said.
Runyon was a guest on a recent Community Forum, where he talks more about tornado preparedness. That is available at WJEZ.com.
