March 17-23 is Severe Weather Preparedness Week and RTV6 is Working For You to make sure you and your families are prepared when there’s severe weather. Each day this week, RTV6 will be debunking weather myths and offering tips to keep you safe.
NOBLESVILLE — When a tornado or flash flood strikes, in general, the safest place you can be is inside your house. But what should you do in the case that you can’t make it home in time?
“Growing up in Puerto Rico where there’s hurricanes, I think about that stuff all the time,” Bolivar Lopez told RTV6 while visiting Potter’s Bridge Park in Noblesville with his young daughter. “Especially being out in Indiana, where there’s a lot of open sites.”
If you find yourself caught off-guard outdoors, acting quickly can be key to keeping yourself safe and minimizing the impacts.
“If you can, get back to your car,” Shane Booker, executive director at Hamilton County Emergency Management, said. “You’re better off in your vehicle if you’re in a park and there’s lightning, or thunderstorms. Make sure that you go back into your vehicle and not stay under a shelter. You definitely do not want to stand under a tree.”
Taking shelter under a tree can be deadly during a thunderstorm. A tree can fall on you and also puts you at a greater risk of being struck by lightning.
In the event of a tornado, if you can’t take cover in a sturdy building, Booker said to get into a ditch and cover your head.
“I would try to find a ravine that was down really low, and that way it would hopefully not be the thing that got picked up the most," Karen Helm, another park visitor, said. “Something up higher would be a little more of a concern.”
Let’s say you’re driving when things outside get ugly.
“One of the things that’s really important to do is just simply pull over and do that safely," Booker said. "It’s not a good idea just to immediately stop in the middle of the road. Slow down and then try to look for a safe spot.”
It’s best to find a nearby business or other building and get indoors.
In the event that you encounter floodwater, the saying bears repeating — turn around, don’t drown. It’s never worth it to try driving through high water, especially when you don’t know what’s happening beneath the surface of the roadway.
Booker said that severe weather in the Hoosier State should be taken very seriously and can be a real danger.
“We do get those pop-up thunderstorms. Some of those can be slow-moving or what we call training thunderstorms where they kind of build right after one another," Booker said. "It can lead to flash flooding so that’s a concern. We also are concerned with tornadoes. We’ve had a tornado in the state of Indiana (during) every month of the year.”
Having a safety plan in place— no matter where you are during severe weather— might just save your life.
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