The following links take you to important informational sites. They will open in a separate window or tab.

• Center for Domestic Preparedness Home Page
• ​Homeland Security News
• Audrain County Health Unit
• Emergency Management Institute – FEMA Independent Study Program
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Nitro-Pak.com: Innovative & Affordable Preparedness Gear
• Nixle Community Information Service– Audrain County Joint Communications

Start your preparedness initiative by assembling a basic Tornado Safety Kit containing:

• First aid kit and essential medications
• Battery-powered radio, flashlight and extra batteries
• Canned food and manual can opener
• Bottled water
• Sturdy shoes and work gloves

Know the Signs

• Strong, persistent rotation in the base of a cloud.
• Whirling dust or debris on the ground under a cloud base – tornadoes sometimes have no visible funnel.
• Hail or heavy rain followed by dead calm or a fast, intense wind shift. Many tornadoes, are wrapped in heavy precipitation and can’t be seen.
• Loud, continuous roar or rumble, which doesn’t fade in a few seconds like thunder.
• If it’s night, look for small, bright, blue-green to white flashes at ground level (as opposed to silvery lightning up in the clouds). These lights are power lines being snapped by very strong wind, maybe a tornado.
• Persistent lowering of the cloud base.

Know What to Do
Stay tuned to your local radio or TV for weather reports, or listen to a NOAA weather radio for more detailed information when weather conditions are favorable for the formation of tornadoes.

Additionally, you may want to consider taking the following actions:
When a Tornado WATCH is issued –

• Tornadoes could develop in your area.
• Stay tuned to your local radio, TV or NOAA weather radio for further information and possible warnings.

Be prepared to take cover if necessary.
When a Tornado WARNING is issued a tornado has been sighted or has been indicated by NWS Doppler radar.

• Warnings are given to individual counties or cities and include the tornado’s location, direction and speed.
• If you are in or near its path, seek shelter immediately.

If a Tornado is Headed Your Way

• Shelter immediately in the nearest substantial building.
• Go to the building’s basement. If there is no basement, move to a small, windowless interior room such as a closet, bathroom or interior hall on the lowest level of the building.
• Be sure to use the stairs to reach the lowest level, not an elevator.
• Protect your body from flying debris with a heavy blanket or pillows.

Take precautions if you can not get to a substantial building.
If you are in:

• Open buildings (shopping malls, gymnasiums or civic centers) then try to get into the restroom or an interior hallway.
• If there is no time to go anywhere else, seek shelter right where you are.
• Try to get up against something that will support or deflect falling debris.
• Protect your head by covering it with your arms.

Automobiles:

• Get out of your vehicle and try to find shelter inside a sturdy building.
• A culvert or ditch can provide shelter if a substantial building is not nearby — lie down flat and cover your head with your hands.
• Do not take shelter under a highway overpass or bridge, because debris could get blown under them or the structures themselves could be destroyed.

Outdoors:

• Try to find shelter immediately in the nearest substantial building.
• If no buildings are close, lie down flat in a ditch or depression and cover your head with your hands.

Mobile homes:

• Do not stay in mobile homes.
• You should leave immediately and seek shelter inside a nearby sturdy building or lie down in a ditch away from your home, covering your head with your hands.
• Mobile homes are extremely unsafe during tornadoes.